Beyblade Ski Trip
by Oltierra
Summary: We had all been dragged to Austria for what Mr Dickenson was calling a 'bonding experience' and what Hiro was calling a 'painful experience,' mainly because he did not think any of us would be able to survive a week in each other's company.
1. Early Mornings

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade

Chapter One – Early mornings

The storm began at six o'clock in the morning with a sudden and totally, utterly, freezing bucket of water. I think I actually woke the Gods with my screaming, (and quite possibly shattered the eardrums of whoever woke me.) Not that I care about that, as far as I am aware they now deserve to seriously suffer.

I leapt from my bed somewhat ungracefully, as I managed to trip over the sleeping, human shaped bundle of blanket on the floor, which I believe might be Tyson. He didn't move. Freaking deep sleeper, the sky could crack open and rain molten rock and he wouldn't notice. Unless it began raining sweets of course, then we wouldn't be able to hold him back.

I rectified my fall by grapping hold of the draws just in front of me. Bad idea. Everything, and I mean everything came cascading down in a heavy, slightly sharp avalanche of random objects. After that I was able to stand up, and take a first look at the person who had woken me.

Standing there, wide awake and with a smug grin on his face, was Kai. How he could look perfectly normal after the 24-hour coach journey from hell, I will never know. But then again he is Russian, and they don't seem to be affected by time, or weather, or feel any emotions at all.

It was then that I realized how cold it was. I shivered violently and gave Kai my death glare. He smirked casually, then turned and walked towards the door, where he stopped and said,

"Breakfast in ten minutes. Oh and wake the others." I could tell that there was a smirk on his face even with his back to me. Some people just have that air about them. It follows them around like a little puppy or something and launches itself on poor, unaware people to happen to get to close. Max and Tyson get a lot of that, the whole, I'm big, you're small, I'm clever, you're dumb, I'm perfect, you're annoying thing. And it's always from Kai. Always.

I woke Ray first, with the more gentle method of shaking. He woke quickly and was half way through yawning when he caught sight of my hair.

"What the…?" The drip, drip of my soaking hair was making a puddle on his lap. His eyebrow twitched upwards and his golden eyes shinned in the morning light. I explained in one word.

"Kai." He didn't need any more explanation. A smile broke through the tiredness, and he brushed the unbelievably long, black hair out of his face, before swinging himself out of bed and going to wake Max, who was sleeping on the floor beside Tyson. After Max was awake and all three of us were dressed, Ray turned to me as I was towel drying my hair and said,

"What are we going to do about Tyson?" Ahh I had forgotten him.

"Leave him to me." Said Max. Brave guy. Ray and I took a step backwards: we have had experience with a recently awakened Tyson. Now trust me when I say, it's not pretty!

However there is a strategy to it.

Step 1. Steel yourself for the approach.

Step 2. Walk slowly and carefully towards the suspect.

Step 3. Look behind you to make sure that the exit route is clear. (There is nothing worse than tripping over something whilst still in arms reach of the sleeping monster.)

Step 4. Take a deep breath. It is advisable to say a prayer at this point.

Step 5. Brandish weapon of choice e.g. something relatively soft but hard enough to produce some degree of pain, without lasting damage. Raise it above your head and slam said weapon into the target's face whilst screaming something similar to a war cry.

Step 6. Run as fast as possibly possible in the direction you came from, dodging all flailing limbs and stopping only when you have reached a safe distance.

Step 7. Congratulations! You can now turn around and have a good laugh at the target's expense.

Max knows this strategy.

I know that Max knows this strategy.

The whole world knows that Max knows this freaking strategy!

But today he is recovering from a 24 hour coach journey, so we can forgive him for what he is about to do next. He walked up to Tyson and reached for the glass of ice cold water on the floor beside the unconscious boy. I heard Ray groan beside me, but neither of us said anything: sometimes the consequences of actions such as these are even funnier than when you use the strategy.

Max knelt on the floor. He raised the glass. It tipped over, streaming its clear, ice liquid downwards. It travelled almost serenely in an arc, more effective than any alarm clock. It landed in the centre of Tyson's forehead and instantly showered his entire face. There was no sound for the whole of five seconds, and it was only when all of the water had been spilt that there was any reaction at all.

The dam broke. Kind of. Tyson's left arm flung itself into the air, grabbing hold of Max's throat, the other arm flying out and punching his stomach. Max's spluttering was drowned out by the ninja warrior cries of Tyson, as Max was sent crashing down onto the tiled floor beside him, still with a hand clasped in a vice around his neck, and the other beating him repeatedly. They were both twisting and squirming in a heap of flailing limbs, and max was attempting to choke out words that sounded a lot like curses from where Ray and I were standing.

We leapt into action as Max's face turned one shade darker than we though was probably safe. Then getting severely battered in the process, we managed to prize them apart, to leave us all scattered on the tiles, breathing deeply.

"Why is my face wet?"

"Tyson!" Whined Max.

"One of a kind!" Ray muttered, and instantly the tiredness vanished and we all began to laugh.

I left the others to finish getting ready in the bedroom we were all forced to share. I swear if the BBA cuts back anymore, they will make us sleep on the streets. Kai's the clever one, as much as it pains me to admit it. He grabs the sofa in the adjoining room and leaves the rest of us to suffer Tyson's snoring. He cares so much for our sanity, it's shocking!

What I don't understand though, is why he can ignore us all day, and then not do so when we are trying to get to sleep at night as well. I tried to explain this to him once, and to be perfectly honest, I still get a little flutter of surprise every time I remember that I am still alive. The others thought Kai's reaction was vaguely amusing. I… well you don't want to know what I thought. Let's just say that was the closest I have ever got to slapping him so hard he has a permanent hand print.

For all of you confused souls who have no idea of how Kai responds to USUAL questions, this may be an eye-opener. Here are some examples…

"Kai, could you pass me the pepper?"

"Hn." He continues to sit there, doing nothing.

"Please?" I try, I really do.

Kai gets up and walks out of the room. Does not pass me the pepper.

"Morning Kai, sleep well?"

An innocent question don't you agree?

"Whatever."

Isn't he the cheerful one in the morning? He was about ten metres away when I muttered under my breath.

"Nice to see you too!"

He heard that.

"What was that?"

My life, I can see my life, it's dancing in front of my eyes.

"Nothing."

Please save me!

"It sure sounded like you were saying something to me." Normally I would rejoice at hearing him string enough words together to string a sentence. But right now is neither the time nor the place.

"Well I wasn't."

"Hn."

His crimson eyes burned into mine and a frown wrinkled his forehead. Then he rolled his eyes and walked out. I stuck out my tongue at his back even though I knew it was childish. He froze in his steps, leaving just enough time for my heart to coat itself in ice, before walking on.

"Hey Kai, what are you reading?"

"Go away."

"Oh come on, it was just a simple…"

"Don't make me repeat myself!"

"Fine!" People really shouldn't talk to me like that. I proceed to call him as many insulting names as I can think of. In my head. Whilst walking away.

So there we go. That is our sociable, loving, caring, generous and happy captain. I feel that I should add that if that's how he talks to me, you should see how he treats the others. Ray is an exception: he has some tolerance for Ray and perhaps a little respect for Kenny and Hilary. But Hilary goes without saying, as she is responsible for hitting Tyson every time he so much as attempts to do anything stupid.

I arrived in the kitchen at the very moment the kettle boiled. I threw two slices of bread into the toaster and poured myself a glass of water. I sat opposite the emotionless Kai and ignored him, so well that I didn't notice him open his mouth to speak.

"Nate."

I mean after all, I have every right to act as though he doesn't exist. He knows that I do not like mornings. He knows that I especially do not like early mornings, and yet he still does what he does! Jerk! Oh look the jerk's lips are moving, I think he is trying to say something. By all the wonders on Earth he is!

"Anyone home?"

Somehow, I think I may have missed something. Either that or he has finally lost it. Both ideas seem reasonable enough.

"Nate! What is wrong with you?"

I caught that bit. I blink once, then again in comprehension.

"Um, ahh, well, maybe, what sorry?"

Good God, I need to learn to string words together in the mornings, and fast! He appears to be rolling his eyes and opening his mouth to say something again.

"Whatever."

Was that it? Really?

"Is that all?" My mouth worked without me, hmm, that has never happened before. His eyebrows have risen and he looks a tad amused.

"You are not a morning person." By this point I had given up thinking, and just accepted that my brain was not going to function properly until around noon.

"No." Simple sentences are the way forward for me now.

"Hn." And Kai can't even manage that apparently.

"So what are we all doing today?" I really do want to know. The whole of the blading world has been dragged to Austria for what Mr Dickenson is calling a 'bonding experience,' and what Hiro is calling a 'painful experience.' Mainly because he doesn't think any of us are going to survive a whole week in each other's company. The Allstars are here, the White Tigers, Blitzkrieg Boys, –sadly- Barthez Battalions, Justice 5, F-Dynasty, The Majestics – why, we don't know- and us, The Bladebreakers.

"I don't know."

"Mr Dickenson hasn't even told you then?"

"No."

"I reckon we are all in for a hell of a surprise, if he won't even tell you."

"You may be right."

"Could be funny…"  
>"How?"<p>

"Watching everyone's reactions when he finally gets around to telling us. He can't possibly please everyone."

"Hn. Maybe."

My toast popped up, and I stood up to collect it, when my hand jerked upwards knocking over my mug of water.


	2. Fear of Russians

Chapter 2- Fear of Russians

My toast popped up and I was standing up to collect it, when my hand jerked upwards knocking over my mug of water.

The sound alone was enough to chill my blood. In less than a second the entire tsunami of water was dripping into a large puddle all over Kai. I froze on the spot and watched with a growing sense of dread, as Kai slowly put down his own mug of coffee in the water and raised his head to look at me with eyes as crimson as blood. We stayed that way for what felt like hours, listening to the constant beat of water falling onto fabric. My heart was threatening to burst right out of my chest, when suddenly I could stand it no longer.

"I am, so sorry." Was about all I could say, before I grabbed a tea towel from a rail near the sink, threw it in the water, wrenched my toast from the toaster and ran from the room. I only stopped running when I was back in the bedroom, where I collapsed down onto my bed and finally started breathing normally again. Slowly I ate my toast, wishing I had been clever enough to snatch some butter or jam to make it a little less like eating cardboard.

Max walked out of the bathroom and frowned at my measly breakfast.

"Uhr, I thought the idea was to have spread on the toast…"

"Yup." But I was a tad busy today, you know, running for my life!

"Just felt like a change today?" he ventured, clearly confused.

"Nope."

"Then why…"

"… I spilt my water all over Kai." Max's face paled a shade or two before he continued to speak.

"You did what?"

"Spilt, water, over, Kai."

He burst out laughing so quickly that I found it hard not to join in. I finished my toast and brushed my teeth in the bathroom at the same time as Ray. He also found it hilarious that of all the people I could have spilt water over, it had been Kai. After that we all added layer upon layer of clothes before finally our ski jackets and hats.

Looking in the mirror, I patted down the huge bulk of material around my waist, raising one eyebrow and shaking my head at my reflection. Wearing this many clothes makes me look giant. Ray turned to look in my direction, and he had a twinkle in his golden eyes.

"You look just fine Nate." He said, a smile making his lips twitch upwards.

"Bah, you look alright in seven layers of clothes! A couple of pounds heavier maybe… but still reasonably human."

"You sure know how to make me feel better." He muttered, pretending to be hurt by what I had said.

"Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," he looked in the mirror himself, "I do look a bit odd I guess, what with my hair and all."

"We can be odd together."

"Yup."

"I doubt we will be the only ones looking strange," I laughed.

"You're right, these clothes suit absolutely no one."

"I am pretty sure Mr Perfect could pull the look off," I said quietly.

"Who Kai?"

"Hn," I replied. Ray placed a hand in my shoulder and said.

"Nate, I know this may not surprise you but, Kai is not human." He whispered the last three words.

"Ah, that clears some things up." Both of us laughed, and got ready to go and meet everyone down stairs in the joint dining room. We were just about ready, when Tyson walked in looking wide eyed and a little scared. As he approached us he tripped over his bedding on the floor and landed with a loud thwack. He jumped back up so fast that he had to throw his arms out to steady himself, and stop himself from going over again. A big red mark was already spreading across his forehead from where he had face planted the floor. He noticed us both staring and gently ran his fingers over the newly formed lump directly between his eyes, and sighed.

"As if my day couldn't get any worse."

"You alright Tyson?" Ray said, and Tyson sighed again.

"Yeah I suppose. I just saw Kai in the corridor looking like he was about to kill someone." My face paled and Ray gave me a sideways glance. "Anyway, he had water all over his lap, and well, I couln't help…"

"You didn't!"

"… suggesting that he might have…"

"Oh God he did!"

… wet himself." He looked a bit upset, looking at the floor as if he wanted it to open up and swallow him. Ray and I however, must have looked unsettled at this latest revelation, as Tyson felt he needed to ask us if we were feeling alright. After being reassured by two dazed nods, he went back to gazing at the tiles. I was about to open my mouth to say something when good old, I- will- kill- you- if- you- so- much- as- poke- me Tala stuck his head around the door and charmed us with his politeness.

"Get a move on bitches!" And then vanished, leaving us in a mad rush to gather all of our gear and run downstairs.

Six tables had seemed enough last night when we had been in casual clothes, but now we were all suited up for a day on the mountains and bunched together in a similar way to sardines. More worryingly however, was that there was not even enough room to allow Bryan his usual ten foot wide, personal- cross- and- experience- hell, line. He looked worse off for it as well, and he kept cracking his knuckles and growling in the back of his throat. Despite this, he did not look quite as bad off as Michael, who was sitting next to him, with his arms tucked in close to his sides in an attempt to be as small as possible and not touch Bryan. Needless to say, he was in a ski jacket, and so was not succeeding.

"Poor Michael," I said, slipping into a gap in the bench next to Hillary at the edge of the table, as far away from Kai as I could get. The whole table had to shuffle around so that I could fit, and even then I was perched half on, half off.

Mr Dickenson clapped his hands once from where he was standing on the steps up into another dining room for the other guests at the hotel.

"Now, now teams, quieten down. I hope you all slept alright, and are all wide awake for today's adventures." The sound of badly covered up scoffs reverberated around the room but Mr Dickenson didn't seem to notice. Meanwhile Michael's face continued to get paler and paler with every passing second, until it looked as if he might faint where he was sitting. Hiro had noticed this now, and after a few seconds of silent panicking, grabbed Mr Dickenson's arm and interrupted him.

"I think it would be best if we finished this on the coach."

"Yes, you're probably right. Okay everyone, make your way outside please." As soon as the final word was spoken, Michael bolted. He actually dived headfirst over the table and straight into a surprised looking Emily. Everyone blinked and then smiled before erupting into all out laughter. Except for Bryan that is, who doesn't blink, smile or laugh unless about to kill someone, and as his prey had just leapt like a startled deer out of reach, he did neither.

Mr Dickenson frowned gently and then dismissed Michael's behaviour with a simple sentence.

"It is good to see that someone is excited." The people that heard his words smiled silently and one even said, "Scared for his life more like!"


	3. The Pink Monster

Chapter Three- The Pink Monster

We were all piled in to the coach now; I was sitting in an aisle seat with Ray next to me. The driver was taking us on a winding tour of the mountains and I could see that some people were beginning to drop off to sleep. I however was wide awake and unable to move due to my ski jacket restricting all movement and the rucksack and helmet we had picked up along with the rest of the necessary equipment when we had arrived yesterday, on my lap. I could not move sideways either as Ray was in a similar position, only without the aisle to spill out into like I had. I had tried to move, but the results had not been pretty and Ray had made a sound like a crushed cat… wait… he he he…

We pulled into the car park at Alpendorf Ski Resort, and the cease in movement caused a few people to jerk awake. Mr Dickenson stood up and addressed us all.

"Now we are all here... Tyson wake up… and now we are all awake, I can reveal that our little surprise is going to be withheld until tonight." Everyone sighed, they are killing us with all this suspense. "But I hope you all have a good day on the slopes. So off you go. Hiro will meet you at the top, as will your instructors."

Simultaneously around thirty people stood up quickly, slammed their heads into the coach roof, swore and sat back down, ironically, with helmets in hand. The Blitzkrieg Boys remained in their seats and smirked.

….

We finally made it up to the gondolas, with several minor trips in the giant ski boots we were all wearing. I massaged the lump on the top of my head as I waited in the organized chaos of the queue, surrounded by a couple of other bladers, everyone else had mysteriously disappeared in the journey up all of those stairs. I mean seriously, who would build that many stairs and then make people climb them this early in the morning, in ski boots? It is just evil!

We piled into the gondola, six of us in total: Oliver, Max, Eddie, Hilary, Mariah, Tala and me. I had lost Ray in the full on fight to get on the moving chamber that was now hanging over the mountainside. We sat in silence. We were all friends- ish, but it was such a strange mix of people that none of us really knew what to say.

But you could always rely on Tala to smash headfirst into any awkward silences and make them run away screaming.

"Sooo, Oliver…" He stretched his arm upwards and wrapped it around Oliver's shoulders. Oliver's eyes grew wide and threatened to fall out of his skull. "…Your hair's green." He giggled in a high pitched voice and retracted his arm. There are times that I wonder if Tala is insane, and other times that I know, without doubt, that he is insane.

Hilary, Max and I exchanged glances, and Oliver tried to shuffle away from Tala, and out of the gondola window. The rest of the journey took about ten minutes and passed in silence. When we finally pulled into the disembarking zone we all practically fell out in the rush to grab our skis, and hobble as fast as possible into the blaring sunlight, and away from Tala.

…

Beybladers are athletes, they like sport. I like sport, mostly. Oh, and we are competitive, hate losing, hate being rubbish at things, especially sports. So when most of us found ourselves being classed as beginners it was a little hard to handle. I think what made it worse though, was having to stand and watch as the Blitzkrieg Boys, The Majestics and a few individuals such as Garland, Michael and Kai, got moved straight into expert groups.

When it was all sorted and we were in our groups, we were lead away to learn the basics. I was in a group of ten with, Ray, Miguel, Claude, Emily, Max, Kevin, Ming Ming, Brooklyn and Mystelle, which was not really too bad, as far as I was concerned. The others had pushed off elsewhere and we were introduced to our instructor by Hiro. His name was Dave. Ming Ming instantly dropped her skis in the snow and latched herself onto his arm. We all sweat dropped and watched in embarrassed silence as she purred out that her name was Ming Ming, she was famous, and single.

"Uhrm, well, ahh…I… um…help!" The poor guy managed weakly.

"Poor guy," said Max in my ear and I nodded in agreement. None of us dared to step forward and help him- Ming Ming was now rubbing her cheek up and down the arm of his ski jacket and continuing to purr- and we did not know how to react. The only people, who might have known, were distracted. Brooklyn was staring transfixed at the view of the white mountains and patterns of sunlight reflecting off the frozen water droplets covering them. The term nature freak does not do him justice in my book. Then there was Mystelle, who was standing a short distance away at the top of a steep mountain cliff, looking like he is fighting the urge to jump. Mystelle likes jumping, a fascination that no one quite understands… Ming Ming had started singing in a high-pitched, ear-shattering way that caused our instructor's face to reflect pure pain. Oh dear, there are tears in his eyes, we should probably do something now.

I have a scratch all the way across my forehead and I think it might be for life. By the way, it was Ming Ming, hate her, fear her, and her evil pink fetish. Hiro says I don't need stitches, but I am not so sure. Today is not a good day.

…..

We have been skiing down a slope that makes a flat road look steep for over two hours now. We pause every ten minutes when Ming Ming has her turn and happens to fall into our instructor's arms, or runs him down so that she can lie on top of him and apologise in that sickly sweet voice. At first he would catch her, but after the seventh time he just began stepping out of the way and letting her eat snow. She may be beginning to get the hint now, but it is hard to tell.

Hiro left us a long time ago, and we have not seen any of our other friends since then either.

"Okay people time for lunch, if you will all make your way over to the café near the gondolas." Finally. All this repetitive stuff is beginning to bore me, and dent my pride. I can see similar thoughts passing across the faces of the others, even Brooklyn's. His calm demeanour is shattering, and I think we are all getting a bit worried that he is going to return to his, I- am- going- to- destroy- the- world, phase again.

The last thing we need is a hormonal pop singer and a violent tree-hugger at this moment in time. I realise that I am on the verge of a headache as I reach don to take off my skis, straighten back up and promptly fall over. Instead of getting up, I think I will lie here. My eyes are already closed, and it is kind of comfy on all of this snow.

"Nate, get up." You know what, I don't think I will.

"Nate." I will set Ming Ming on you if you are not careful Instructor!

"Up now!" In my mind I was engaged in a full scale argument, but my body was not having any of it. I had stood up and walked half way to the café before my brain realised what was happening and stopped hurling mental insults at Dave.

I slid along a bench into a tight space at the corner of the table, abandoning my helmet and bag on another bench entirely. I have a lasagne on my tray and it looks lovely, hot pasta is the cure for everything. Hiro mentioned earlier that we should try to eat as much as possible to keep our energy up. Dave sits down to eat with us and makes a joke about something or someone, but I cannot be bothered to listen. No one responds and he shuts up. Good.

I take a mouthful of food and struggle to keep from spitting it out. It is cold. All around the table my group are having similar experiences. I never knew Kevin's face could match his hair.


	4. A Narrow Escape

Chapter Four

I tug the ski boots off my feet and they smoke. That has never happened before. I just want to sit down, not here, the ground's wet. We are all getting back on the coach now and there is small talk around me but I don't feel like joining in. Falling into a seat beside Ray is the highlight of my day; he will understand how tired I am and sympathise.

"What happened?" He pauses and gestures to my brow, where Ming Ming's scar sits glaring at passers-by.

"Ming Ming is a tart with no freaking self-control." I think that sums it up pretty well, and Ray looks at me in a confused but kindly way.

"Right, uhr, are you okay?"

"I have been better. You?"

"Yeah." He is still eyeing my scar. I turn to face the front and there is a badly covered up scoff froma red-haired Russian standing above me in the aisle.

"I know you are part cat Ray, but really, you should know better than to scratch your friends." He drawls out as a growl escapes my throat, which only succeeds in making Tala's smirk grow even larger. "Mind you I can understand it in Nate's case."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Whoa, calm down there, I am only messing."

"Leave me alone!"

"Fine whatever…" He continues down the aisle, but I can hear him a few steps behind saying "…scratch post."

Sigh, Ray is looking at me weirdly again but I cannot be bothered to explain my sudden loss of temper. He can wonder until his heart is content. Everyone who walks past is frowning at my forehead and it is making me feel self-conscious. I would put my helmet back on but my hair is already sticking with sweat. Closing my eyes I decide to simply sit and relax.

…..

"Nate." Damn it, if people keep using my name to wake me up, I may learn to hate it.

"Nate." You are making me hate my own name, whoever you are. Be ashamed!

"NATE!" Fine! I pull my eyes open to see the inside of the coach. So it was not a dream. I really am here. Sigh. Someone's face is swimming into view and I recognise it as Kai's. Suddenly I am awake, and my brain is overflowing with two words, repeated over and over. Why him?

"Finally! Get your stuff we are at the hotel." I obey without uttering anything, follow him into the hotel and dump my ski boots and other gear in the first room, before trailing up the stairs to our room. The other Bladebreakers are already there. Somehow Ray had managed to climb over me to get off the coach.

"You look exhausted."

"Thanks."

"Get in the shower first, and then get ready. My D's taking us all out somewhere."

"Thanks."

"No prob." I really owe Max one. Mind you, he did witness first-hand what happened with Ming Ming.

….

I feel much better now. The hot shower woke me up and washed away my aches. Being back in normal clothes also helps… I can move! We were all back in the dining room and it had returned to its usual size. This time we had arrived early and so were sitting in seats quite near the front. However the Blitzkrieg Boys had shown up shortly afterwards, and sat conveniently opposite Ray and I. Tala has been staring at the scar on my forehead for ten minutes now, and I can say I am officially creeped out. So much so, that I have resorted to staring right back, in the hope that he will get a taste of his own medicine and stop.

The plan has worked against me and has actually made it worse. Bryan and Spencer noticed what was happening and are now staring at the scar as well. What the hell is wrong with that team? We seem to be attracting a lot of attention from the other tables.

Silence fell, and every person in the room began staring at Tala and I. Something strange had come over Kai and he was having trouble controlling his normal cold exterior. Out of the corner of my eye I can see him shuddering and his lips twitching, as if the urge to laugh was overwhelming him. I concentrated on this, not only because it proved that he was human, but because it meant that I was not concentrating solely on the red-head opposite.

The tension in the room had reached a peak, when Mr Dickenson and Hiro walked in. They stood there as if they were unable to move, and their blank expressions of confusion broke the odd atmosphere and people began laughing quietly. Tala and I were wrenched from our staring competition by a sharp elbow in the ribs each, just in time to catch Mr Dickenson's first words.

"Uhr…" Impressive. Hiro took over. Good move. Mr Dickenson's mouth is moving but no words are coming out. I arch an eyebrow, before dismissing his behaviour and turning all of my attention to Hiro.

"Okay then teams. I hope you have all had a good day." There were a mixture of nods and scoffs in reply. "It is now time for our little surprise." From where I am sitting I can see Tyson and Max fidgeting in anticipation. That stops suddenly as soon as we hear what Hiro has to say next.

"We are going to change the rooms around, in order to make the teams mix up a bit." A steady groan reverberates around the room. Enrique stands up on his chair and announces loudly,

"So Ladies… who wants to share…"

"We have already allocated people to their new rooms." Hiro interrupts, just as Robert grabs Enrique and shoves him back into his seat somewhat violently. Oliver and Johnny simply smirk in response, clearly used to this sort of thing.

"There are thirty-three of you. So that will be three rooms of six and three rooms of five." Please let me be with Ray! Please! Oh God not Ming Ming, or Tala and definitely not Enrique! Save me from their evil clutches!

"Right let's get this started whilst you are all reasonably cooperative. In room one we have: Ming Ming, Hilary, Lee, Eddie, Max and Tyson." Every one of the poor souls stuck with the Pink Monster, look like they are about to give up blading just to escape. On the other hand, I feel quite happy. One down, two more to avoid!

"In room two: Garland, Enrique, Raul, Julia, Mariah and…" Ray is muttering something next to me that sounds like, oh please no, don't put me with her, please no, not Mariah! "…Ray." Mariah's face lights up and Ray's pales; his eyes are wide and they look at Hiro screaming, why would you do that to me? Hiro gives Ray a glance and shrugs in apology.

"Sorry." I whisper. Meanwhile I am thanking my guardian angel that I am not in the same room as Enrique.

"In room three we have: Nate, Brooklyn, Rick, Emily, Kenny and Robert." Yes! I am home free! Three evils successfully avoided!

"Room four: Kai, Bryan, Spencer, Tala and Ian." A lot of frowns spread around the dining room: it is hardly fair to put them all together. Mind you… it is probably better for the rest of our sakes.

"Five: Matilda, Miguel, Johnny, Oliver, Michael. And finally room six: Claude, Mystelle, Kevin, Gary and Crusher." Mr Dickenson has recovered now, and returned to his normal organised self.

"You will have fifteen minutes to move your things into the designated rooms, before meeting back down here for dinner. Off you go."


	5. The Cat is Human After All

Disclaimer: I do not own beyblade, (sadly) 

Chapter Five- The Cat is Human After All 

"You will have fifteen minutes to move your things into the designated rooms, before meeting back down here for dinner. Off you go."

The chaos that ensued lasted about twenty minutes, and the queues of suitcases being dragged up stairs, or being allowed to fall downstairs, into unsuspecting people only resorted in minor casualties. The worst of which was a slight accident, involving Emily's oversized suitcase full of electrical equipment, running over both Raul and Julia as they walked past the stairs. Although I was not there, I was informed by Michael that the twins had screamed so loudly, that the noise stood more chance of shattering bones than the suitcase did.

I probably would have heard them, if Rick was not sharing the room with us. He plays his music too loud. If I clench my teeth together I can still feel them vibrating. But you know what the best part of it is? He is the only one, of the six of us sharing this room, who remembered to bring an alarm clock. I had a look at it when he was in the bathroom, and it is set to some sort of gangster rap thing and on full volume. He walked back in before I could change the track or lower the volume a little. Oh well, at least we will be very awake, very quickly tomorrow morning.

Dinner was enjoyable and surprisingly ordinary. I do not really know what I was expecting, but after that cold lasagne at lunch, we could have been served anything. After eating we were all loaded back into the coach and driven to a bowling alley. Bowling the Austrian way is different, the lanes are narrower and the bowls smaller and lighter. So basically a mini version of what we have back home.

To add insult to injury, it appears that bowling is another sport that bladers fail at miserably, even though it is all hand-eye coordination. This only succeeded in making it more amusing, especially when someone decided it would be a hilariously brilliant idea, to keep track of our worst shots with black eyeliner doodles, on our faces. As it happens, EVERYONE is now walking around looking as if they had an accident in a pen factory.

Tyson is looking very pleased with himself. He has drawn a cat's nose and whiskers on Kai. Epic. Judging by the expression on Kai's face, he has not caught a look of himself in the mirror yet. He is heading towards one now. Oh no you don't! I am going to move to intercept him now. Barging in front of Kai and nearly knocking Kenny over in the process, I say,

"Hey Captain!"

"Are you drunk?"

"What? Uhr no…"

"Then someone has spiked your drink." He said it so blandly that I actually found myself wondering if someone had.

"Really? Oh wait, no, that's unfair!"

"You never normally go out of your way to talk to me."

"Now that is not true!" It is really, but I am just not going to tell him that.

"It is." What has gotten into him today? He just… wait… what is that? The smell of something sweet drifts over to us from where Tyson and Max are sitting, and Kai sniffed at the air. I automatically struggle to keep from exploding with laughter, and my stomach knots itself into a ball that begins to hurt as I play back what just happened in my mind.

Kai sniffed at the air, and his cheeks moved just enough, to make his whiskers twitch too.

I can feel my face going red and I try desperately to hide my reaction, in order to keep our gullible captain from catching onto Tyson's genius. Tears come into my eyes, as the image of his twitching whiskers swims across my vision. He looks really confused, as I fight to keep my breathing under control but end up just holding my breath, getting redder and redder in the face with each passing second. Tears are actually pouring out of my eyes now, and I quickly reach up to wipe them away, only to have them replaced almost instantly.

Wait, a look of realisation just flashed across his features. I can't believe I have given it away!

"Hey Nate, there is no need to cry about it." His voice is the softest that I have ever heard it, and I suddenly get the feeling that I have missed something. The deep confusion replaces nearly all desire to burst out laughing, and I calm down in time to hear him continue. "If I knew you felt so strongly about it…" What is this, it, he is talking about? It, is worrying me! "… I would have talked to you more."

"Sorry?" I must have misheard something.

"You're crying about how we do not talk much." His normal barrier has been lowered slightly and he looks so open and almost caring, and I am left standing in shock, in the middle of a bowling alley, quite possibly with my jaw hanging open and eyes bulging. But…

"I am?"

"Uhr…"

"Look Kai…" I don't really want to ruin the whole 'Kai's got whiskers' thing, but I think it might be necessary if he is ever going to look at me again. But God, it's going to be difficult. "… I wasn't crying. I was trying not to laugh."

"What?" The barrier has already been raised again, and although he still has a rather confused air about him, he is as cold as ever.

"You let Tyson draw on your face, what did you expect?" I reached inside my bag and pulled out a compact mirror and handed it to him. He went white, and then red in rapid succession. His crimson eyes grew dark and violent. The whiskers on his left cheek twitched.

"I am going to kill him." His voice was steady, but that only made it more disturbing.

"Not looking like that you're not."

"I beg your pardon?"

"If you kill him with all that eyeliner on your face, he won't be able to stop laughing." Immediately he began rubbing at the lines on his cheeks, but they all smudged and no amount of rubbing was going to get rid of the large, black spot on his nose.

"That is not working. You need makeup wipes."

"And where the hell am I supposed to find those?"

"Hey, I am trying to help you here!"

"Hn." I struggle to keep from rolling my eyes, but when I eventually fail I spy Ming Ming's bag lying on one of the tables. It is surrounded by people, but that does not matter; it is payback time. She was nowhere to be seen and I had a plan in the forefront of my mind already.

"Wait here a sec." Kai does not look like he wants to be left alone. I feel sorry for anyone who gets too close!

I walk casually over to the table and push in between Michael and Miguel, who part to let me in. Damn, the bag is still out of my reach. Think, Nate, think! Brooklyn is closest to the bag. There we go!

"Brooklyn."

"Yeah? Oh, hi Nate."

"Hi, could you pass me my bag please?"

"Of course. Which one?"

"That pink one with all the sparkles on."

"Sure."

"Thanks." Brooklyn has his head in the clouds permanently, which leads to a naivety that could be matched by Tyson alone. The bag is under my arm and no one notices anything weird. I hope. Quickly I make my way back to the stranded cat with smudged whiskers.

"Follow me captain." It takes every reserve of restraint in my body to stop myself from calling him kitty. He follows me wordlessly until we are out of the main bowling room and in a small corridor leading to an emergency exit. There was no one around, and I started searching in the stolen –I mean borrowed- bag.

"That's not yours."

"I know that." I hurts me a little, to think of how long it took him to notice my cunning swipe of this pink monstrosity of a bag.

"So?"

"It's Ming Ming's."

"She is going to kill you if she finds out you've got it." I stop riffling through the bag to run a finger along the scar on my forehead. I wince, but then carry on.

"If, she finds out!" I repeat, putting a lot of emphasis on the If. I find the makeup wipes and rip them open.

"I can't believe she keeps those in her bag," Says Kai, "is she worried they will get stolen back at the hotel?" I cannot help laughing.

"You have no idea, no idea at all do you?"

"What?"

"She removes and reapplies her makeup every time she goes to the bathroom." I shake my head and raise my eyebrows.

"Is that… normal?"

"No. As far as I am aware that's just insane."

"You two are nothing alike."

"That's the nicest thing you have ever said to me." It really is. He smiles, which is a rare sight, and I cannot help smiling too. I stand there and admire the painting on the wall as he wipes all the eyeliner off his face. Neither of us tries to start up the conversation again, we have known each other for nearly five years now, so we know when and when not to talk. Or rather Kai talks whenever he feels like it, (which is rarely,) and I talk when I know for certain that I will not be committing suicide by doing so.

He makes a movement which suggests that he is finished and I look back to inspect. There standing before me is the Kai we all know, no longer with the cat's whiskers.

"Are you going to remove yours?" He asks. I realise that I have not examined my own forfeit yet, but it should be okay really.

"I think I may be alright. It was only Garland that drew on me, and he is not exactly imaginative."

"I would normally agree, but I think he has had an inspired turn today." I grabbed the mirror from Kai and inspected the damage. My eyes widen.

"I didn't think it possible." I manage to utter under my breath.

"He may even have come close to beating Tyson." Right there, on my left cheek, just under the eye, was a hollow heart. But it was what was written in the heart that left me unable to move. In the centre of the heart, in perfectly legible, neat handwriting, was a single word. Tala.

"It could have been worse." Kai stutters out, he was having difficulty holding in his amusement.

"How?"

"It could have said Bryan."

…

We go back into the bowling alley and Kai goes off to murder Tyson, who sees him coming but does not run fast enough. There is a slight commotion, broken up before it could get serious by Hiro, supporting a pirate's eye patch. I went on to miss the pins again, which gained me an arrow through the heart; (I remembered to look in the mirror this time.) We all have a genuinely good time and by the time we are ready to go back to the hotel many people look about to drop where they stand. The coach is quiet and calm. We all sink into our beds with minimal conversation.

...

Author Note: Thank you everyone who has reviewed so far! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	6. One Slide Too Many

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade

Chapter Six- One Slide Too Many

Heavy gunfire shatters through my curtain of much-needed sleep. I leap out of bed in complete action-mode and run for the door to our room, wide awake, my heart threatening to jump out of my chest. I crash straight into someone else and we land in a heap on the floor before instantly trying to get back on our feet. There is a sudden sharp pain in my ribs and another figure collapses on top of us followed by one more. All of a sudden there is silence. Then laughter. My mind does somersaults and finally settles on a distant memory of Rick and an alarm clock.

"Oh God." My whole body goes slack and I close my eyes. I hate mornings. And Rick as well at this particular moment. Everyone gets up very slowly, nursing throbbing headaches, but I continue to lay here. There is a thump at the door and someone shoulders it open, nearly wrenching it clean off its hinges. It's Hiro. Why is he out of breath?

"I heard screaming! Is everyone okay?" A grumble of groans is all he receives in the way of a reply, along with Rick's constant laughter.

"Nate, why are you lying on the floor?" I do not even open my eyes.

"Ask Rick."

"Uhr… well, breakfast at seven thirty." He sighs and walks back into the hallway, looking like someone who knows it is going to be a very long day. Rick passes me on the way to the bathroom and as soon as I can no longer see him, I get up. The alarm clock is in my sight, and I tread over to it carefully, grab hold of the volume dial and turn it down. I can hear Emily whispering under her breath. From what I can make out, Rick is a dead man, and if Emily was two inches taller she would have punched his lights out already. I have new respect for her. He is on her team.

We all stumble like zombies down to breakfast after showers. Overweight zombies in all of this ski gear. I do not say a word as I sit down at the first seat I encounter and face-plant the table. Four similar thuds tell me my roommates are doing the same.

"Sleep badly?" A sympathetic voice drifts over.

"Really well." I did. That is the sad bit.

"Then what's wrong?"

"Did you hear the music this morning?" I start, and there is a lot of muttering around the table. I do not know who they belong to, for all I know they could be strangers. "Well try waking up with it next to you."

"Ouch!" Everyone agrees, and I raise my head to see all of the Bladebreakers. I am a bit surprised that I did not recognise any of their voices. My gaze passes over Kai, sitting in the corner furthest from Tyson.

"I would take a cold cup of water any day." At that Kai acknowledges my existence with a slight smirk.

…

We were all the way up the mountain before I spoke again. Even then it was only to congratulate my fellow roommate, Robert, on nearly succeeding in rugby tackling Rick off the side of a steep cliff mere seconds after he had stepped of the gondola. The five of us had agreed in a quiet discussion whilst Rick was in the bathroom this morning, to make as many attempts on Rick's life as possible during the day. And quite possibly tomorrow too. It depends on how we feel. We do not want to actually kill him, just scare the wits out of him, and leave him in such a state that he will never use his alarm clock again, ever.

Ming Ming rushes past me and runs instructor Dave down. We stand there, far too tired to help the poor guy. Today we ski down a proper slope! Although we have to use the Banana Lift to do so. Who created this? A piece of plastic that is not even yellow, that you have to lean on, but not sit on, that drags you up a hill with nothing to hold onto but a flimsy wire. Not to mention the regular attempts it makes to cut your legs off or send you flying backwards down the slope and towards the lift operators, who look like they eat beginner skiers for breakfast.

Despite this though, we all improve considerably today. I have not fallen over once and I feel proud of this fact. Dave thinks we are ready to ski down from the top of the mountain after lunch. So off we go up the chairlift, which is (much to everyone's surprise) uneventful.

Lunch is amazing. I have carbonara, a bit of a risk considering what happened with the pasta yesterday, but this time it was boiling. I finally begin to understand why people come on these holidays. Sitting here in the warm with hearty food and good company, (excluding the Pink Thing) watching people glide past with a spectacular view behind them. I find myself looking forward to joining them. There are a couple of other groups eating in the restaurant with us and it has a homely atmosphere, especially with the fire burning in the grate in the centre of the room.

"There is a slide down to the toilet." Someone on my table says: if I heard that right.

"What?" I ask.

"A slide down to the toilet."

"Wow!"

"It's really fun!"

"You've…?"

"You need to ask?" I am talking to Max, so the answer to that is no.

"Guess not." We continue talking about random and irrelevant things for the rest of the meal. When I am done I decide to go to the bathroom and inspect this slide. It starts from right next to a flight of stairs down, which look steep and wet. I have still got my ski boots on, so from where I am standing the slide looks like it might be the safer option.

I sit down at the top of the slide. It looks really quite steep all of a sudden, and a strange feeling crosses my mind that maybe this is not such a great idea. But I decide to go ahead anyway. A decision that I almost immediately regret.

There is all of no friction between myself and the carpeted slide, as I shoot down it like a bullet. I stretch my feet out too stand up when I hit the ground, but the tiled floor is wet and there is nothing to hold on to. I skid across the floor before my torso overtakes my feet and I plummet forwards. There is a thump as I smack into the tiles and continue sliding, before finally coming to a halt under the pool table on the other side of the room. As I drag my severely shaken body off the floor, a small boy walks out of the toilets and a if it could not get any worse, he points at me and laughs.

No one believes me when I tell them. I wish I did not believe me either, but I have the floor shaped marks to prove it. Skiing back down the mountain was a mixture of experiences. From awe and wonder at the inspirational views, to the freezing cold of the snow that I eat at various intervals. I am not as terrible as some of the others though, so that makes me feel better, until I stop for desert at the next corner. Somehow I manage to avoid landing on my developing bruises. Not that they could get any worse.

After two hours of skiing we all crowd in the gondolas again before stumbling down the stairs to the coach. Everyone is cheerful and unlike yesterday, we talk properly on the journey to somewhere that, if the view out of my window is correct, is not the hotel.

"I wonder where we are going."

"Back to the hotel." Replies Ray, my coach partner once again.

"No, I don't think we are."

"How very perceptive of you Nate." Says a voice behind me, who when I look, turns out to be Brooklyn. "How very perceptive…" So apparently when Brooklyn is woken up at the crack of dawn by the sound of hell opening, he turns creepy. I look at Ray, who, judging by his expression, worried and confused.

"Very perceptive…" reaches my ears in a soft whisper, and I decide that it is easier to forget that Brooklyn was ever there, rather than try to decipher his mind. Which I am now pretty certain is twisted in a rather strange way. Ray and I sit silently, unsure of whether we should reply, but after a couple of awkward minutes we just continue talking as if nothing happened.

Shortly after that we pull over. There are a few houses by the road and a hill, all completely covered in snow. But despite this, our visit here still remains strikingly free of any suitable reason.

...

Thank you to everyone who reviewed! Please continue to do so! Hope you enjoyed chapter six, it was inspired by a true (and embarrassing) event...


	7. The Stand Off

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade

Chapter Seven- The Stand Off

This is so cool! We get out of the coach and they hand us these tea-tray things. The hill to the side calls to us and I see now that the white covering has been compacted down into a smooth slope, much like those up the mountain. A couple of local children push each other down it and travel incredibly fast. The patch of smoothed snow does not seem long enough, and the two bullet children practically take off when they hit the frozen mounds at the end of the run. We stand there stunned, as they crash spectacularly and tumble forwards, before sliding to a halt several metres in front of where their sledge lay.

"Awesome!" Says Michael, and we all begin our climb to the top.

An hour and a half flew by, quite literally, and we all have yet more bruises. I have a rather fetching one on my right cheek, where a sledge tipped up and smacked me in the face. I now look like I have been in a serious fight, what with the scar on my forehead and my slight limp due to the 'slide incident' as I am now calling it. Surprisingly, no one got knocked out when Spencer and Rick ploughed straight into a group of bladers climbing up the hill. But Hiro did call it a day shortly afterwards, to 'prevent nightmares' he said.

Even the Blitzkrieg Boys had joined in, much to everyone's shock and horror. Needless to say, there was a fair amount of diving to the side and running away as fast as possible to avoid them. It did nearly become a competition to see who could go the longest without breaking something vital, but by that time we had learnt to dodge all those participating.

I did offer Spencer and Tala money if they could succeed in running over Ming Ming or Rick, but they said nothing and simply laughed. I reckon this was probably because, as annoying as Rick and Ming Ming are, their annoyingness is never directed at the Russians. I would have asked Bryan, but well, he scares me slightly, and I would not wish the sight of him speeding down a hill with a menacing grin on his face, on anyone. Even the Pink Thing.

When we got back to the hotel, we were all in such a good mood, that we did not even mind having the room plan anymore. I relaxed in the bedroom, listening to Kenny and Emily talk technology at each other, and Dizzy correcting them occasionally. I did not even mind the drone of gangster rap in the background coming from Rick's headphones. Although the look on Robert's face, suggests that it might have been getting to him.

Fearing an argument, I began to hatch a cunning plan in order to keep the peace. Brooklyn gazed at me strangely as a laughed under my breath, but soon went back to staring out of the window, at the birds on the reservoir outside the front of the hotel.

When all of the details of my plan were organised in my mind, I sprang into action.

"Hey Rick, what are you listening to?" I ask innocently.

"Same stuff that woke you up this morning." He smirked.

"I am afraid that I was too busy trying to bury my face in the floor, to actually listen to the music." I laugh with him, despite the memory still making me hate him slightly. "Do you mind if I listen now though?" He looks a bit taken aback, but pleased that I seem interested, rather than out to get him.

"Sure." He passes me a headphone and I plug it into my ear. I have to struggle to stop wincing as the overloud crashing blasts me to musical oblivion. I can feel tears coming into my eyes as I attempt to keep my voice under control, so as to give nothing away.

"I never realised it was this good." I lied through my teeth. On the other side of the room Kenny freezes mid-sentence and gives me a look. As does Robert, though his is decidedly more glare-like. However, it does not put me off and I continue with my plan.

"I think we should play it on your music player." Rick's eyebrow raises, but he does what I suggest and soon the banging racket fills the room, and I feel four pairs of eyes burning into the back of my head. The music player vibrates the floor and I can feel the heavy beat through my feet. As I am still standing, I begin to tap my feet and clap my hands, swaying back and forth and shaking my head to flick my shoulder-length hair into my face.

I stay like that for about half a minute, before lunging to my right as if I was falling over. But instead of plummeting to the floor, I threw myself at the music player, scooped it up into my arms and swerved upwards. I darted to the door, swung it open and ran like a bullet down the corridor. I could hear crazed laughter behind me and it spurred me on.

I was down the stairs at the end of the corridor before I heard any footsteps behind me, timed almost perfectly with the base in the music. I sprinted through the dining room and the entertainment room next to it, almost colliding straight into Enrique, but swerving at the last moment, and continuing onwards until the pool table was between me and the doorway that I knew Rick would follow me through.

He arrived seconds after me, a mad look in his eyes. The various people in the room stopped their conversations to watch, and even Kai put down his book. The remaining roommates arrived shortly after that, whilst Rick and I were stuck in a staring contest, and catching our breath. I reached up slowly and stopped the music, ( if you could call it music.) Silence fell like a rock thrown from a cliff.

"Give that back Nate!"

"Hmm, I don't think I will." Rick actually growls at me. But as a member of the Bladebreakers, I have travelled the world with Kai, so Rick is incapable of scaring me.

"I won't ask again!" I hugged the music player to my chest and twirled around on the spot like a ballerina.

"Oh but I think I am growing to like it now."

"Nate. I am warning you."

"Oh really?" I continued to spin gently, holding the source of all my troubles like a young child. I put one hand over the one of the speakers as if it was an ear, and said, "please don't make such threats in front of the baby." Rick snapped. He was climbing over the pool table before I had even finished and made to tackle me off my feet. But I slid under him and under the table, to stand up on the other side as Rick spun around, anger in his eyes to the laughter of everyone in the room.

"Nate!"

"I will give it back in time. But first I want you to promise me something in front of all of these witnesses." He growled softly, and I took it to mean that he would comply. "Right, firstly, I want you to promise me that you will not play your music in our room, or anywhere that anyone can hear it. Secondly, I want you to turn your alarm clock down to a reasonable volume, so that we are not woken up at the crack of dawn by what sounds like the apocalypse. And finally, I want you to promise that you will set, said already mentioned alarm clock to a track that we may actually be able to tolerate on some level or another." I stopped there, and waited.

"Well. I guess I could agree to that." Rick spat out the words and his hands curled into fists. He must really love his music player: I thought I was pushing my luck going for all three demands.

"Shake on it." It is best to be sure.

"Hn." He did not look pleased, but extended a hand over the table regardless. I balanced the player in one arm and reached over with the other to grasp his hand. It felt as if my hand was being crushed to a pulp in his palm, and I had to stretch my fingers out afterwards to make sure they were not broken. I handed the music player back over reluctantly.

A round of applause went up as Rick walked from the room and I was victorious at last. My roommates patted me on the back one after the other. The bags under their eyes seemed to have disappeared with the hope of a gentle awakening tomorrow. Normal conversation filled the room again and I felt truly happy for the first time in this entire trip.

...

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, please continue to do so! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	8. A Revelation

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade 

Chapter Eight- A Revelation

Gentle music floated into my dreams and stirred me from my thoughts. I sighed softly and curled myself into a ball underneath the thick duvet and blankets. A shape drifted over to the window and drew the curtains slightly to let a few rays of light in. The shape was Brooklyn and he floated over to the alarm clock and turned it off, before going into the bathroom for a shower. No one else moved.

"I don't want to get up." Groaned Emily and we all agree with similar sleepy sounds. I have a feeling it may be difficult to get up today.

Half an hour later we were all down stairs eating breakfast in the joint dining room. Two slices of toast – with butter and jam this time- and a glass of orange juice, topped off with meaningless conversation. It was all going so well, and the morning passed completely without hitch.

This is why I was probably asking for it, when we skied over a hill and came face to face with a very steep decline. Dave made us stop there, though he we did not need much persuasion. He began what can only be described as a pep-talk.

"Now I wouldn't make you do this if I did not think you were ready."

"What if we do not think we are ready?" Max said quickly.

"Yeah, what if we have been falling over secretly behind your back, and are actually, definitely, not ready to go down that hill." Kevin followed Max's lead, and we all nodded behind them. Although I would have called it more of a cliff than a hill: hill implies that it was friendly. This cliff was sneering at us.

"I will go." Mystel interrupted calmly and launched himself over the edge. I figure that the steepness of the slope reminded him of jumping, and his strange obsession with flinging himself off high things, replaced all reason within his otherwise quite sensible mind. I say sensible…

He swerved and turned at incredible speed, but made it down in one, very windswept piece. The next person to go was Claude, who was chosen at random from the reluctant people remaining. He however, was not as lucky as Mystel.

He missed one of the turns and picked up too much speed and lost control. He snowballed. That was the only way to describe it. Snowballed. He lay there at the bottom of the slope, face down in the snow, both skis no longer on his feet, but several metres behind him. We all winced and I heard a couple of people say ouch. Dave ploughed on as if nothing had happened, and Claude was still moving.

"And now we have an example of what…" he looked at Mystel, now skiing back to check if Claude was still alive, "…and what not to do." He looked at Claude. "So who's next?"

No one moved. No one looked at him. All eyes fixed the ground with a desperate stare, as if hoping they could sink into the snow right where they stood. Except for Brooklyn, who was looking at a bird in one of the trees lining the slope. Dave seemed to notice this and so picked on him next.

"Brooklyn you're up."

"I have a deep, subconscious feeling that it would be unwise for one to proceed before all of these other charming people." He gestured at us, and we all scowled.

"Tough." Was the only response he got, and he shuffled to the edge and looked down.

"Brooklyn, ski down that slope now or…" However Brooklyn was no longer there. Max had pushed him.

Max was forced to go after. Dave called it Karma. It continued like that until there were only two of us left at the top: Emily and I. By now Dave was glaring at us in a way that said, "go now or I will leave you here." I looked at Emily, who was still watching the ground.

"How about we go together?" I suggested.

"Hmm, yeah." She agreed. It was not a particularly safe thing to do, as there was a chance of collision, but it was preferable to staying at the top. We pushed off simultaneously and nearly ran each other down instantly, but corrected ourselves with seconds to spare. Suddenly there was a rush of wind in my hair and stinging in my eyes, I could not blink I was concentrating so hard.

One turn, quickly, head back up the hill a little to control the speed of the decent, then down, turn, repeat. Five turns later, and I was at a break-neck pace but nearly on flat land. Then I was home free and I relaxed all my muscles and glided the rest of the way.

I skidded to a halt next to the rest of the group. Emily joined shortly afterwards also in one piece. Out of the ten of us, four had only just made it. In the sense that they had very nearly, been made permanent features of the landscape.

"There, that wasn't too difficult was it?" Said Dave, who had just skied over. He was fixed by four hateful, but slightly traumatised stares. Those same four people were seen to be visibly trembling for the remainder of the skiing that day. Those of us who had not fallen, were seen laughing, but in a sympathetic way.

….

We had another excellent day on the slopes and a fun journey back to the hotel, courtesy of Tyson somehow ending up to Tala. It started off in silent tension, before spiralling into full on conflict. The amusing kind of name-calling that ensued had several people bury themselves into portable music players, rolling their eyes. All the remaining people turned their full attention to the pair and I did the same.

"Why is your hair even like that?"

"Oh as if you can talk!"

"But it's defying gravity!"

"Where do you get navy hair dye from anyway?"

"You look like some sort of orange gargoyle!"

"Does your hair stylist buy it for you?"

"I should call you 'Devil Hair' because it looks like you have horns!"

"You look like a woman!"

"…and you don't?"

"I bet you and Max get together and play with each other's hair!"

"Ha! And you and Bryan!" They both go to say something else, but are interrupted by a deep, menacing growl from the seat behind them.

"Shut up, or I will shut you up myself!" Both of them started giggling nervously and then sat silently, looking at the backs of the seats in front as if they wanted to disappear. Bryan may be on Tala's team, but he still scares the orange hair dye out of him.

We were all dropped off at the hotel, and told to go and fetch all of our swimming gear before returning. There was a variety of different feelings towards the trip to the local pool, which Mr Dickenson had organised. I was not really bothered, but then I saw Ming Ming in a deep conversation with herself over what she was going to wear. Even after that, I was only slightly annoyed.

The maze of changing cubicles made the process of getting changed considerably more difficult than it needed to be, not to mention the fact that you needed a map to find the actual swimming pool. I walked past a selection of other people who looked just as confused as I expected that I probably did. It was only when I managed to find Emily and Matilda, that we were able to put our combined intellect together to locate the water.

We looked out over the water and gasped. There were at least three good-sized pools, two slides and a cinema. The last one got us too. It was a small circular room with waist high water and benches around the edges. A large screen covered the major portion of one of the circular sides. Everyone was so excited, until we found out that it was only showing Austrian news channels, and as they spoke in German, the only one who understood a single word was Robert. The rest of us however, were left to wonder at the waste of a perfectly good cinema.

The water was warm, and we all had great fun relaxing and talking about nothing important. Various bladers considered themselves too old or too mature to swim, and instead just sat on the edge, or on the sun loungers around the outside of the pools. I found myself in a plain rectangular pool, separated from the others by a wall with a doorway in. A few of the lazy I-am –too-cool-to-swim people, had found their way in here to get away from the noise. I would have stayed with Ray, but he was on the run from Mariah and that made it difficult to talk to him. I was swimming a few lengths when he ran in through the door way and skidded to a halt, the expanse of water between him and the door. He barely managed to keep on his feet. He looked at me with wide eyes, and I stopped in the water and floated.

"Help me!"

"I don't think there is anything I can do."

"Please Nate! You're a girl, there must be something!"

"I don't know. I am sorry Ray. Maybe tell her you're gay or something." He looked like he was properly considering it, when suddenly Mariah appeared as if by evil magic on the other side of the pool.

"Oh Ray!" She waved and flashed ray a so sweet smile. He panicked and went completely white, desperately searching for an escape. But there was none. He tried to plead with her.

"Mariah please, this has to stop." I feel so sorry for him. The pool is surrounded by people on loungers, including the Russians quite a distance away. Garland is there also, swimming competitive lengths against himself.

"What do you mean sweetie?"

"Oh God." Ray whispers under his breath.

"What was that Ray Ray?" He seems to steel himself, and his hands ball into fists, his finger nails digging into his palms. I continue to bob in the water, as Ray opens his mouth and does the bravest thing I have ever seen.

"Mariah, I am gay." I breathe in sharply and choke on water, spluttering away as each and every person in the room turns in our direction. Ray had shouted it at the top of his lungs. I have to drag myself out of the water to keep from literally drowning in surprise. My coughing was the only sound in the room. Ray's face looked as if it might burn right off, as he is forced to repeat himself.

"Mariah, I am gay." She passes out. On the spot. Just keels over backwards. She was lucky that someone walked into the room in time to catch her.

...

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	9. A Clash of Wills

Disclaimer: I do not own beyblade 

Chapter Nine- A Clash of Wills

"So are you actually gay?"

"No."

"So you just said it to…"

"Yes."

"Brilliant mate, really something!"

"So brave!"

"Yeah, well done!"

Ray was still white and looked a bit traumatised. News of what happened had quickly spread throughout the pool, but only a few had guessed the truth and questioned Ray. He was still tense and flinched whenever someone mentioned certain words or names. Mariah was still unconscious, laying on a sun lounger with Mr Dickenson sitting next to her, a worried expression on his face.

"Come on Ray, you can relax now." I try to reassure him. Everyone has walked off, leaving the two of us alone.

"I can't believe I said that."

"To be honest, neither can I."

"You suggested it."

"Yeah, but I didn't think you would actually go ahead and say it."

"Hmm."

"Come on, let's go and swim in the other pool." He nods in agreement and we leave to go into the pool outside. The air is freezing, but I think that Ray may need the refreshment. There are a few others out here, Max and Tyson included, who have climbed out of the water and are preparing to jump into an unheated pool. We watch them, leap in simultaneously and shout in shock when they surface. We can see them paddle like crazy, before giving up and returning to the warmer water where we are.

I consider copying them, but fail to gather the mental determination required. I swim some more lengths instead, and a calmness falls over me like someone has drawn a curtain in my mind to hide all of the annoyance and stress. Even the teens bobbing in the water around me fail to break through my concentration.

Which is why I missed the human sized blob, block out the light above me as I swam close to the pool side.

"CANNON BALL!" I realised something was wrong about that moment, but lunged to the side too late. Something crashed into me, pushing me down under the water with incredible force. I felt the bottom of the pool scrape my legs and chin, before the weight was lifted and I bobbed back to the surface. All I could see were the blue and white merging together as bubbles desperately struggled to reach the air before me. My head broke the surface and I gasped to fill my lungs with air, flinging my soaked hair out of my eyes. I glared around to see who was responsible, and my gaze fell on Rick. He had a grin plastered to his face that said only one thing.

"Revenge is sweet."

…

That night the muscles in my legs screamed and cried whenever I moved, and groaned when they were still. The after effects of skiing all day with little time to sit down. I lay there in the bottom bunk in waking dreams, where reality and imaginings merged into one combined collection of thought. The aching in my legs shifted as if I was still gliding down the slopes, leading me to believe that I was still skiing. Whenever I jerked suddenly awake, I struggled to work out where I was, and it would take me up to a minute to come back to my senses. Again and again I woke up believing that I was still moving, only to be reassured by reorganising the covers that I was not.

A similar night of restlessness was reflected on many of the faces down at breakfast. I arrived too late to eat with those I normally would, who had no free seats around them, so instead I sat with Hiro and Mr Dickenson. A steady stream of perfectly ordinary and completely mundane conversation washed over me.

"Yes, I heard that on the news before we came out here."

"Oh yes? Did you find it interesting?"

"In a way yes, but I have to say the implication of introducing such constricting rules to a sport such as blading are a little worrying."

"Hmm, yes, but of course if we are to keep Voltaire and Boris out of the blading world them they may be necessary."

"I agree, I can just see problems that's all." The discussion seems to be picking up, when Mr Dickenson finished his coffee and left to get ready. Hiro looked at me, or more specifically at the scar on my forehead.

"I would prefer it if you did not stare."

"Hn. It's looking better now."

"Really?" I cannot keep the sarcasm out of my voice, no matter how hard I try. He frowns at me.

"It didn't need stitches after all."

"No."

"So what's this I hear about Ray's sudden change of heart?" He is smirking, though trying to hide it, as if he knows the truth but wants to hear me say it out loud. I cannot help smiling.

"Oh you know how some of us girls can be. I guess he just snapped."

"As long as no one gets hurt." Trust Hiro to take what had the potential to be an hilarious conversation and make it all serious. He is still smirking though, and I take heart in knowing that he finds it amusing really, no matter how hard he tries to act normal.

"I wish I was still your age." I imagine a younger Hiro and the image scares me slightly. I find myself picturing a Mariah-like teenager. I manage to catch myself before I shudder in horror and deeply offend him.

….

Several hours later and we were back on the mountain, skiing back down to the bottom after another lovely lunch. We were all in a line and Brooklyn was in front of me. Suddenly a shape appeared at the edge of my vision and thundered t our line as we were cutting across the slope.

Before I knew what was happening Brooklyn exploded in a mass of skis and a snowboard. There was a shout as he crashed to the ground, the snowboard swished through the air and neck height directly at me, and I barely swerved in time. There was a sound of crunching and a snap.

Looking back from where I had landed, I could see that the crunch had been Bryan snowboarding straight into the unsuspecting Brooklyn. Whether he had done so on purpose or not is open to debate. The snap on the other hand had been Brooklyn. Nothing had broken, but judging by the look on his face as he picked himself up off the snow, his self-control had evaporated. The eyes were wild and angry, his hair standing on end.

Bryan on the other hand looked amused. He was smiling. The only thing on my mind was how dead Brooklyn was if he went all 'King of Darkness' on Bryan. Everyone had similar things on the minds too, and all of us were worried. Dave was the exception, and he was steaming at the ears with fury.

"What the hell do you think you are doing? You could have killed him!" He shouted, and Bryan turned to fix him with a stare which said, "Do you want to go to a world of pain little man?" in a strong Russian accent. Max was standing next to Dave and he begged him to stop talking with a pleading look. Dave got the hint and shut up, although he still looked angry.

Brooklyn was flexing his fingers and the cracked loudly, filling the silence. I looked desperately up the slope to see where Bryan's handlers were- sorry I mean team. They were there, but a good distance away, maybe up to a couple of minutes behind us. I knew it was them because there was a flash of neon orange. It had to be Tala. I did not let myself contemplate the consequences of it not being him.

Bryan and Brooklyn were standing now, face to face, skis and snowboard abandoned. They both had murder written across their faces. Bryan's lopsided grin and Brooklyn's crazy, demented eyes balanced out equally and chilled the air. We all stood there not moving, frozen by fear and suspense. Both of them were dangerous in their own way, but there was no doubt in my mind, that when the silence ended Bryan would win.

My own skis had fallen off as I had swerved to avoid the sharp edge of the snowboard. I was standing now as well, and tense, all of my muscles screamed. All of the rest of the group still had their feet trapped in ski boots, unable to move either to run away or to help. The Blitzkrieg Boys were still too far off. If someone had to save Brooklyn, it would fall to me to react in time.

They began moving towards each other. Bryan's movements were bold and confident, Brooklyn's jerky, no remnant of his calm elegance left. I realised then, that there was no chance that the others would arrive in time to diffuse the situation, and prevent certain death. But then the two monsters had covered the last few steps and their fists arched through the air like two hammers.

None of us would dare to stop Bryan, but Brooklyn was easier to handle, being the lighter and shorter of the two. I leapt as fast as I could at Brooklyn an instant before the punches landed. I smacked into his side and sent both of us flying into the snow. A rush of air past my ear told me I had barely escaped Bryan's fist. I winded the both of us and I crushed Brooklyn beneath me, hopefully crushing the evil Brooklyn out of him too. I thanked my blader's quick reaction time for allowing me to shove him out of the way in time.

I rolled off him and turned to look at Bryan, just in case he launched another attack whilst we were still within arm's reach. Not something anyone would want. He had a look on his face that would have made man-eating lions run and hide. A whisper in my ear told me that tree-hugger Brooklyn was back. His voice was several notes higher than normal.

"Oh my God! We are so dead!" Really Brooklyn? It took you that long to realise? He whimpered as Bryan started to walk towards us slowly. The both of us tried to make ourselves as small as possible. Not that it would help us: Bryan is the top predator of top predators. My heart was about to jump out of my mouth when a navy and orange blur collided with him at full speed, and a ball of flailing limbs tumbled down the slope several metres.

When the blur untangled itself, we could see that it was in fact Kai and Tala. It had taken the both of them to knock the man-mountain off his feet, as only one would have bounced right back up the mountain. They moved fast and pushed Bryan back down into the snow before he could get up and then proceeded to sit on him. Kai was on his chest and Tala on his thighs. Their snowboards had fallen off and they made no move to go and collect them. Tala looked at us and waved.

...

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	10. The Hatching of a Plan

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade (sadly) 

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed! Please continue to do so!

Chapter Ten- The Hatching of a Plan

I was in the bedroom putting my skiing gear away in the wardrobe. Very little space was left and so I was forced to pile things on top of other things, on top of other people's things. They had all left to go downstairs, and a few minutes after they had left there had been an unpleasant arrival. He was now seriously bugging me.

"So like you owe me now, see?"

"No Tala, I really don't."

"Kai and I saved your life."

"Hardly."

"Hey, Bryan could have killed you!"

"Maybe, but I don't see Kai here asking for favours and stuff."

"Well you know how he is, and besides I am far more charming." I do not reply. I just raise an eyebrow and continue to hope that he leaves soon. "Well maybe not charming…"

"What do you want Tala?" I can feel a headache coming on.

"I just want you to be aware that you are in my debt. See?"

"Fine. Will you leave me alone now?"

"Maybe."

"Please?"

"I was just thinking." Oh no, not good. Tala should not be allowed to think.

"Don't."

"Oh ha ha. I am the one with the ace up my sleeve. Remember that." And he turns around and skips out. I can see the smirk on his face through the back of his head. The only thing I can think of is what the hell I have got myself into. It was nothing really, I was almost sure. Tala could be crazy at times but he is okay deep down… very deep down… under lots of stone and ice.

I am in the process of banging my head against the wardrobe door, when someone else enters. I do not bother to look up.

"Productive."

"Not you too!" I really cannot afford to be in debt to both Tala and Kai. He does not answer and I stop killing brain cells to look at him. He looks slightly hurt, but it is hard to tell. He is after all the King of the Land of Indifference.

"Sorry."

"Hn. We are leaving in ten." He turns to leave.

"Wait! I only said that because Tala was just here, saying that I owed him for saving my life today. Even though Bryan would probably not have actually murdered me, but you can never be sure with him." He stops and tilts his head to one side, as if to tell me to carry on. "You know, after the two of you ran over Bryan before he could do whatever he was going to do, in that scary way that he does things."

"We did save you." He sounds smug.

"Yeah, and thanks for that."

"Hn." I grab a bag and lock the door behind us, and we walk down to the coach side by side. We are the last ones there and so sit next to each other too. It occurs to me that he must have realised that I was missing and come to look for me. I smile to myself as the coach pulls away from the hotel.

…..

Shopping is a form of sophisticated mental torture, disguised as a fun activity for people of all ages. Even when there is a distinct lack of shops, it is still such. We have been abandoned unceremoniously just outside a practically derelict shopping complex, somewhere in Austria. There is no one around at all, except us, and most of us do not really want to be here right now.

"Girls! Follow me!" screeches Ming Ming, and a couple of girls walk towards her slowly. It takes a minute of gentle persuasion and threatening before all of the girls are standing next to her, and they do not look happy about it. I had ducked behind Kai as fast as possibly possible as soon as I had heard her call to the death, and whispered,

"Save me!"

"Hn." Eventually they had no option but to leave without me, and follow Ming Ming to the ends of the living world and into that of the fanatical shopping zombies.

"Phew!"

"Now you really owe me."

"Oh piss off!" I laughed and he smirked. I decided that I was going to spend the entire shopping trip avoiding the group of other girls. The idea seemed strikingly more fun than shopping and also more popular, as suddenly everyone turned around and walked in the opposite direction. Ray and I were left standing there all alone, and we shuffled off reluctantly towards a corner shop.

Rows and rows of sweets and chocolate greeted us with open arms. There were all sorts of interesting varieties that neither of us had seen before. Chocolate with marshmallows, chocolate with pistachios, chocolate with everything under the sun, and then there was the best one ever. Chocolate with chilli in brought an evil grin to my lips and a totally awesome plan materialised in the front of my mind. I would say that it was completely original as far as plans go, but that would be a total lie. The simplicity of it appealed though, and would add to the spectacular effects.

There were four small, scarlet chillies to the right of the name to show how brain-meltingly hot it threatened to be. The only thing left to decide was how many bars to buy. I went for two. A nice round number that meant most people would be able to experience the fire.

We searched around for a bit longer to see if there were any more hidden treasures to be found. There was not, sadly. I paid for the chocolate and we left in excellent spirits, suddenly grateful to Mr Dickenson for suggesting the shopping trip. Once we were outside, Ray fancied trying the other shops to see if there was anything else of interest.

So over the road we went again, following in the footsteps of The Pink Monster and her gang of reluctant shoppers. They were (luckily) nowhere to be seen. The next shop was for clothes, the next for shoes, then cosmetics and finally books and toys. Max and Tyson were busy raising hell in the toy shop with what appeared to be plastic guns and small foam bullets. The shop assistant looked close to a nervous breakdown, and ran his hand through his hair again, making it stand on end in a sweaty quiff. We did not go in.

We ignored the clothes and shoe shops as well in case we ran into certain people that we did not want to see. You know who I mean. That left cosmetics and books and neither of us wanted to go anywhere near the cosmetics shop, since the smell drifting out of it like a cloud was not pleasant. Actually, that does not quite do it justice; in fact it would be more accurate to say that it was so horrible that I was surprised the people in the shop had not melted into puddles on the floor. It smelt like poison, that someone had sprayed weak, stale, rose perfume over in an attempt to disguise it.

So books it was. The shop was called something German and so neither of us understood what it was. Tables and walls of books of so many languages greeted us. I was my kind of place. Quite a few others had found their way here and were seated around the place on chairs and benches and Brooklyn was even sitting on the floor. He however, was the only one reading anything; the others had only come here to escape the cold.

...

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	11. The Taste of Chilli

Chapter Eleven- The taste of chilli

The dining room was empty and so was the entertainment room. Everyone had gone upstairs to their rooms to get their gear ready for another day on the slopes tomorrow. The sky was navy blue and star studded, the only light in both rooms coming from the electric lamps in the corners or suspended from brackets on the walls. I walked in carefully, alert for movement or noises that would warn me that I was not alone. Nothing moved. Nothing sounded. I continued to walk slowly.

I had two bowls in my hands, 'borrowed' expertly after dinner from the kitchens. Hiding them had been the difficult part, but I had come up with some ideas… smuggling them upstairs had also presented interesting challenges… but once again I had thought of an idea.

The bowls were full of chocolate squares, broken up evenly into bite-sized pieces. Perfect. I placed one of the bowls in the centre of the pool table and the other on a smaller table to the side, surrounded by soft, comfortable chairs. Footsteps behind me left me with nowhere to run. I stepped quickly away from the table and spun around, plastering my best innocent expression my face. My hands were clasped behind my back. I realised too late that I looked like I was up to something.

Kai walked into the room, his nose buried in a book. I was frozen. My mind was blank, the only thing that I could think was "do something!" and "act completely normal!" Both of which I failed at. He raised his head, clearly surprised to see anyone else here. One of his eyebrows rose at my suspicious behaviour. I did the only thing that I could do.

"Chocolate?" and I passed him the bowl.

….

I had never seen Kai cry before. In fact I still have not, due to the fact that my own eyes were clouded with water, and I was doubled over with side-splitting laughter. I saw him wipe the tears away though, when he had finished his chilli-induced panic dance. It turns out that Kai + Chilli = epically weird, manic dancing!

By this time he had sunk into a chair, an empty vase in one hand and a pile of scattered flowers on the floor beside him. His face was practically glowing it was so red and I have a sneaking suspicion that you could have fried an egg on one of his cheeks. His eyes were bloodshot and still leaked water steadily down his cheeks. . He looked so different to his usual cold, pale image that my knuckles were white as I gripped the pool table to stop myself from breaking into fresh laughter.

He was gasping for air as he ran his hand through his hair; his normal composure shattered into a million pieces the size of cubes of chocolate. I was leaning on the pool table by now, all the strength having left my legs. I was very tempted to sit on it, but as it was looking a little unstable after the episode with Rick a couple of days ago.

A rasping sound worked its way from the back of Kai's throat into the open air. He was well and truly exhausted and his hands visibly trembled as he went to wipe the tears from his eyes once again. All the while I was fixed with a malevolent stare that clearly said that he was not amused. But then a smile crept onto his lips, starting on the left and sliding across smoothly. His eyes crinkled with mirth, and I instantly realised that I should probably have started running a good few minutes ago.

He moved like lightning towards me and I had nowhere to go but backwards across the pool table. Lurch to the right or left and he would catch me, therefore I needed a piece of wooden furniture between us as fast as possible. I had climbed it as quickly as I could, my heart pounding. I thought for a brief moment that he would stop when he reached the table, but he didn't: he jumped up after me. But the combined weight of us both was too much for the table to take, and it collapsed beneath us.

I had been inches from a chance of freedom, when we were both sent crashing to the ground in a cascade of broken wood. I yelped in pain and surprise as Kai landed on top of me, and my hopes of escape exploded around me. There was something sharp sticking into my back, and I couldn't move; even my hands were stuck under me. Kai was not moving, and I wondered if he was unconscious.

Suddenly he began to lift himself off of me. He was still grinning and worrying me slightly because of it, even though it was now more of a confused grin than an evil one. I was shocked at how close we were, and I realised that I normally only saw him from the other side of a room. He was so much more handsome than I had ever thought, and I could not tear my eyes away from his. He reached for my face with one pale hand, surprisingly delicate, and I was frozen there, unable to think let alone react. I managed to force my eyes to focus upon his hand instead of those captivating crimson eyes. And that was when I saw it. A lump of chocolate descending towards my mouth.

I was determined not to let any of that chocolate pass my lips from the moment we had brought it in the shop. I was no less determined now, and clamped my lips together like a vice, and twisted as far to the left as I could go, but I was still trapped.

I am not sure if Kai was actually enjoying himself or whether he is just a little sadistic. I wonder this because he was smiling from ear to ear as he tried to force the chocolate into my mouth. I continued to squirm and make it difficult for him to achieve his goal of pay-back. It was an hilarious situation to be stuck in – quite literally – and I erupted into yet another fit of laughter, all be it one with my mouth firmly closed.

"Ahem!" I had one hand free now, and was attempting to push Kai off me so that I could run away. He was too strong however, and so it didn't work.

"AHEM!" Both of us jumped out of our skins and suddenly Kai was struggling to his feet. The weight lifted, I sat up instantly to meet the gaze of Mr Dickenson and Hiro, aware of the several other bladers standing behind them. I felt myself go bright red, and not because of the chilli.

Kai pulled me up onto my feet, and held onto my hand for longer than necessary, as if to apologise or to reassure me. We stood there, both of us with tears in our eyes, in the wreckage of the pool table. I had chocolate all over my face, and we were both panting softly, exhausted. My eyes grew wide a second later as a thought dropped into my mind like a ton of concrete in water. I waved my hands frantically.

"This is not what it looks like!" Mr Dickenson raised one carefully trained eyebrow, as if to say that he sincerely hoped not. Everyone behind him looked shocked, and there were a fair number of jaws dragging on the floor. I heard at least one person whisper something about knowing all along. Hiro was pulling a face too difficult to describe by a simple human being. I was officially dying of embarrassment and so I believe was Kai.

The tension made me want to squirm where I stood and I picked at the nails on my left hand as if it was all their fault. I could meet no one's eyes and just stood there. The dreadful silence dragged on and on, until Kai came to the rescue, in an ingenious move that went down in the history books.

"Chocolate?" And he passed them the bowl.

….

Chilli-induced hysteria spread through every inch of the room and spilled across into the adjoining rooms like a raging fire. A spluttering, coughing, choking explosion, that left no one untouched. People fell like human dominoes into each other, gasping and twitching. Hiro and Mr Dickenson appeared to be dancing some kind of strange, alien moves involving clutching at their throats. It was intriguing to see all of the different reactions, but by far the most amazing was Tala.

He stood there and endured; endured the pain and agony and desperate urges for anything to relieve the torture. He struggled to maintain a straight face, no sign of his internal suffering showing on his features. He was barely even breathing, or blinking, and his silence drew my attention to him, to sit and wait for the inevitable snap.

A wave of red started at the base of his neck and shot upwards at an alarming rate, until he was completely scarlet. His eyes began to fill up and leak over the edges as he stared daggers at the wall opposite. And then he broke. Snapped. Completely. Gone. Control out of the window, running away, already down the street and into the horizon.

"Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot! HOT!" he gasped and fanned his mouth with both hands so fast his wrists looked broken. Then he sprinted out of the room in the direction of the kitchen. A storm of people followed him like a herd of sheep.

Kai and I were left alone once again. I had given up trying to stand a long time ago, and just sprawled on the floor leaning on one of the walls. The shaking was almost a permanent feature now, as were the tears of laughter. Chocolate was still smeared all over my face, but all the tissues were out of my reach and I had lost all trust in my legs. Silence fell softly, broken occasionally by a fresh outburst of laughter from me, or a hiccup from Kai, which resulted in more laughter.

A couple of minutes passed and I decided to try to stand up. I failed. Kai came over and gave me a hand, which I was grateful to accept. It turned out that standing was very difficult indeed and required far more effort than originally thought. I found myself hanging on to him for dear life to keep from collapsing on the ground for yet another time. The Kai from the beginning of the holiday would have left me on the floor. But his Kai was different, nearly the complete opposite. I contemplated this, as I finally rediscovered the strength in my legs from wherever it had been hiding.

I could find no reason for his sudden change in behaviour though, and decided it would be unwise to ask, just in case he transformed back into the walking statue with an attitude that eats people alive.

"Well that was fun!"

"Hn." Too late. He made sure that I could stand up, before walking away and going to head back up to the rooms. He stopped at the doorway and looked back as if he wanted to say something. I could not read the expression in his eyes, but it may have been Kai's version of confused, which is everyone else's bored stupid. So you can understand the difficulty that I had. I memorised the face instead, so that I could decipher it at a later date.

Then he was gone and I was left alone in a room that looked like it had been bombed. I left shortly afterwards in case the owners of the hotel decided to investigate the source of the sudden collection of bright red people in the kitchen with their heads in the sink, drinking water directly from the taps.


	12. A Brush with Death

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade 

Chapter Twelve- A Brush with Death

Two hours sleep was all I managed before my curtain of rest was shattered into a million little screaming pieces. I was not impressed. It took me an entire minute to work out who was going to experience my early morning wrath. I settled on the people in the room next door, who were having a blazing argument. Sorry when I said argument, I meant full on bellowing bloody murder. I attempted to block them out with my duvet and pillows, as well as sheer will-power, but all of them failed. In the end the only choice I had was to lay there and try to work out what they were saying and then decide if it was safe enough to go and silence them, by force if necessary.

I realised instantly that they were shouting in Russian. The only words of which I know, are swear words, and as a result I could pretty much understand what they were saying. However the reason for their row was still beyond me. I would have gone over there straight away, had it been anyone else, but I did not like my chances against a room full of pissed Russians who have been known to use violence in **ordinary** situations.

"Oh God make it stop!" Someone groaned from under their covers, and there are other barely distinguishable sounds which show that everyone else is awake as well. Apart from Rick, who is currently snoring as if his life depends on it. Something crashed next door and the swearing reaches an optimum. At the sound of something else breaking, we all stiffen and hold our breath. But soon the shouting is back and I feel my sanity drift away slightly.

A whole thirty minutes later and I have officially lost it. Not quite to the degree that our charming, quiet, considerate neighbours have, but still enough to drag my tired body out of bed to pay them a visit. I did not bother with the lights; my roommates had suffered enough already. Instead I just grabbed a jumper and a pillow. The jumper was for me, the pillow for Rick. The smack as the pillow thumped into his snoring face was very satisfying. I had needed to hit something. I tried to feel sorry for him, but it did not work. Needless to say he was awake very fast and in no mood for the polite conversation currently taking place next door. He streamed his own set of profanities and crawled into a ball under his covers. I smirked, a grin which quickly disappeared when something else broke on the other side of the wall.

I stepped out into the corridor and walked the several steps to their door. I lifted my fist and pummelled the wood as if was solely to blame for waking me at two in the morning. Because I am deeply grieved to inform you that it was that insanely early. For a moment I thought that they would never hear me, but then all went blissfully quiet. Footsteps approached and there was the click of the lock sliding back. The door swung open just enough for me to see Bryan glaring at Tala, angrier than I had ever seen him, before Spencer moved in the way and blocked the view into the room.

"Hey Nate, what can we do for you?" I was more than shocked at his jovial reception.

"Uhr, could you be a bit quieter please?"

"That may be difficult to achieve I am afraid. You see, Bryan's gone a bit crazy." A bit crazy? He calls the One Man World War in their a bit crazy? My face clearly showed my disbelief because he winced slightly when a further, though considerably smaller crash came from behind him. "If you will excuse me for a minute Nate." And he darted back into the room.

What I witnessed next was unbelievable. Almost unreal. Tala and Bryan had leapt at each other, fists flying and teeth clenched stiff in absolute fury. Kai, who had been holding Tala back, was powerless to prevent it. Ian was sheltering on one of the top bunks to save himself from getting crushed. Kai had been shoved to one side and his calm demeanour looked a tad cracked. From where I was standing it looked as if he might have a black eye on the way.

Spencer transformed into action man and sprang at the two bladers, who were clawing and swinging at each other with blows that could have broken bones. Tala received a fist in the stomach and returned the hit with a punch straight to Bryan's face. They recoiled from one another and Spencer used the opportunity to his advantage. He planted himself between them and caught them both as they bounded back to attack again. One of his big, beefy arms wrapped around each of their necks and held them there.

They struggled to free themselves, but it was no use. Their feet barely touched the floor. Eventually they stopped fighting back and just hung there. Spencer banged their heads together once.

"STOP!" They did just that. They still looked angry but it was much calmer now as well as much less violent. I saw Kai and Spencer deflate slightly.

I was fully aware of the fact that I was standing in the doorway to their room, in my pyjamas, with my jaw on the floor and my eyes doing an impression of a deer in headlights. So I expected looks of incredulity and amusement to be directed towards me. And so they were. I still found myself unable to move, either due to absolute amazement or fear, but almost certainly respect.

"Nate?" Spencer said lightly and I snapped out of whatever trance I had been in, but still remained baffled.

"Uhr, I think I may leave now…" I replied as if my head was in the clouds. I walked back to my room, took my jumper of and got back into bed. Silence reigned supreme once again and it was not long before I had returned to blissful, but slightly confused sleep.

….

Breakfast was a grumpy affair in the morning. It did not take long for me to realise that even the people in the room at the other end of the corridor and down a floor, now hated the Russian bladers with a passion. The signs were obvious. Garland's hair was a mess and Gary and Crusher were busy cracking their knuckles and scowling. However Garland's hair was the most worrying sign. It probably meant that the world was coming to an end. But that is just my theory.

The pool table in the entertainment room had disappeared over night and it looked surprisingly empty now. Everyone was annoyed that it was gone, and it would only take another little shove to push someone over the edge. You could not have cut the tension in the dining hall with a knife. What everyone decided they needed was some light-hearted conversation. And they found it… in Kai and I, and the events of yesterday evening. Ray and his false confession to Mariah were long forgotten.

As a result I was contemplating drowning myself in my cereal.

"It will wear off I promise." Ray whispered to me.

"It had better."

"It will." He reassured me.

"Hm." I did not like to mention that I was not so sure. Kai is Kai after all, and that makes the situation that I am stuck in vastly different from what happened between Ray and Mariah. I think he may have realised this as he began to look a little less convinced. I shrugged it off though and continued ignoring everyone who was talking about anything other than breakfast and skiing.

We were on the slopes before we knew it, and Tala had already been systematically run over twice. He was asking for it really, considering that both he and Bryan were equally responsible, and no one would willingly go near Bryan with a ten-foot pole on a good day. So that left Tala. If he was not regretting the fight last night now, then he almost certainly would in the near future. As if to prove my point, Garland chose this moment to crash into him and send him flying. Somehow Garland managed to stay on his feet, and he waved as he disappeared around a corner.

Then we all went our separate ways. The beginner's group that I was a part of went down the mountain from the gondola for a change, instead of up the chair lift to the summit. It made a welcome change. We had all improved considerably and no longer wiped out at every bend. But today was a step backwards. Instead of just oft snow there was a layer of ice to cover it. This made skiing very interesting.

The most memorable moment of the morning, was when the group of ten, all skiing in a line, swerved around a bend in the slope, and ceremoniously piled themselves into a mountain of their own. There was nothing particularly challenging about the corner, but nevertheless, eight out of ten of us felt it necessary to crash. The path in the snow cut close to the mountain-side and was a relatively tight turn, with a sudden drop on the other side, with a fence to stop people propelling themselves into space.

Ray and Claude had somehow managed to ski into each other, and come to an undignified stop in the middle of the slope. Kevin, Ming Ming, and Emily had been next. Failing to avoid the crash-zone, Kevin had barrelled head-first into Claude as he was in the process on standing up. Being so small, he had in fact bounced right of the surprised skier and into shocked Emily. Ming Ming had no choice but to turn right instead of the left required to follow the track, and was presently off-roading. She lasted about two seconds, before tripping over her own skis and face planting a mound of snow, dangerously close to the edge of the slope and the steep drop to oblivion.

Mystel managed to find his way through the carnage and stopped next to Dave, who looked like he had lost all faith. That left Max, Brooklyn and me. We had come over the crest of the hill in time to witness the mass wipe-out, but not quite in time to stop and wait for the obstacles to move themselves.

Max was first in the line and attempted to cut the corner as close to the mountain –side as possible, so as to avoid the chaos in the rest of the slope. However, the slope was not quite wide enough for his idea to work, never mind the fact that none of us could have made such a tight turn anyway. The ground rose up to meet him and Brooklyn, having followed him, promptly crushed him.

When it came to my turn, nearly the entire slope was littered with people trying to stand up. I tried desperately to snow plough and slow down sufficiently to avoid them, but the snow was so icy that there was nothing that I could de but hope for the best and aim for the largest gap. I made it through. Just. From where I stood with Mystel and Dave, I could see the extent of the hilarity. Dave was despairing and kept sighing under his breath and shaking his head in disbelief. Mystel skied over to Ming Ming and pulled her up from where she was dangling precariously over the cliff, that it now appeared everyone had been desperate to throw themselves over.

When we managed to regroup a little further down the slope, nearly everyone was shaken so badly that they could barely stand. Ming Ming was the worst, having had the closest brush with death. Her voice had risen an entire octave. Something I had not thought possible, but was now seeking to destroy my ears and my mind. I felt almost sorry for her. Until she latched herself onto Dave's arm and began insisting that he never let her go ever, and that he should protect her from all things scary. I said something about how I would show her the true meaning of scary if she did not clam down, and she glared daggers at me. I listened to my better judgement for a change, and left the issue there.

We headed off to the restaurant for lunch, which was thankfully just around the next bend. Though corners had proven themselves to be difficult, I was sure that we would make it.

...

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed thus far, please continue to do so! If you have not yet reviewed, please feel free to click the little review button!


	13. The Beginning of Chaos

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade 

Chapter Thirteen- The Beginning of Chaos

Lunch was awkward. So awkward. Not the lunch itself… that would be weird… but the atmosphere at lunch. It all happened when we were sitting down, busy eating and talking and generally minding our own business. Then in walked the Blitzkrieg Boys. The tension went up a notch just because of their presence, and gradually people around the table stopped talking. If that had been all that happened, it would have been awkward enough. But no. Tala never ceases to amaze me. He came and sat with us, and then forced his team to sit with us also.

I found myself suddenly annoyed that the table at these ski restaurants were so large. There was just enough space left for all of them to fit. They always skied together. There were a few theories about this doing the rounds, that went from them following Bryan around to save innocent people, to them actually being friends. The latter was the least believable, but you never know. But anyway, there was definitely only just enough room for them all. This meant that everything got awkward.

Kai appeared last with his tray of food and looked around the table with those cold, emotionless eyes. It must have looked as if there was no space and he turned smoothly to go and find another seat.

"Wait." Dave called him back. "There is room here." And he patted a small gap next to him on the bench and shuffled to the left to make room. Nearly everyone around the table collapsed with badly disguised laughter. I shall tell you why. The gap was directly between Dave and me.

I promptly disappeared underneath a shade of crimson embarrassment. It was an unvoiced agreement that we were to ignore each other. And so we did. Gradually my face began to return to its normal colour. A lot of people around the table were elbowing each other, glancing in our direction and giggling. Even Dave caught what was going on, and began his own round of chuckling and winking. It went on for the entire meal, until I was considering going to find a slide to throw myself down. Kai looked as if he was having similar thoughts when I managed to steal a glance in his direction.

Finally it was over, and I was free to continue skiing in peace. I felt like I deserved a medal, or two. But what can you do?

….

We all offloaded from the coach and streamed back into the hotel. Michael somehow managed to trip over some air and face planted a mound of snow. He had to be pulled back to his feet by Emily, while being glared at by Kenny all the while. I felt a tad hypocritical, but ensued in a game of elbowing Ray and pointing and winking anyway. There are some things that you just have to do. I do not think Kenny agreed, as he went promptly very red and practically ran into the hotel.

The familiar routine of dumping all the gear in the little room saved for such things, and the treading up the two flights of winding stairs and along the corridor to our room at the end was reassuring. I honestly thought that dear Mr Dickenson had nothing left with which to surprise us. Guess how wrong I was! He announced it at dinner.

"I hope you are all having a good week! There is not much time left now, and as it is the last night here, I thought we should have a little fun." We were all sceptical to say the least: to Mr Dickenson, watching paint dry is the epitome of entertainment. But we listened politely. "I propose a party!" He said above the surprised silence. Needless to say we all agreed that it was a brilliant idea. I say we, but that just means everyone except the Blitzkrieg Boys, although Tala did get an evil glint of excitement in his eyes. I mentioned this to Hilary, who I was sitting next to.

"Tala looks a bit crazy."

"I thought he always looked like that."

"Well yeah… but…"

"I guess he does look like he is planning something."

"Do you think we should we be worried?"

"If Tala is involved, then yes, always!"

"Good point!" I dwelled on my worries a bit longer, but eventually pushed them to the back of my mind.

"There will be a few team games and challenges to compete in. But they will be kept secret until you are al back down." Mr Dickenson continued. "So off you all go to get ready!" And with that, of we stampeded.

It was chaos. Absolute, utter chaos, which succeeded in scaring me. It was worse- and possibly more life threatening- than moving rooms had been. I feel the need to describe it as a Party Preparation near- Death experience. Especially when I was run over by Enrique. I would say that I was shocked that it was him who had gone the most insane, but I was not. No one was. Those poor people sharing a room with him had vacated the room and were sheltering in others.

People were changing clothes and plastering on make-up and styling hair. I wondered who they were trying to impress. Most of us have spent three or four years blading together: seen each other at our best and worst. A bit of make-up was not going to change anything. Perhaps they just liked getting dressed up. I tried to put some effort in, but it did not really come naturally to me. In the end I just changed out of my ski clothes and into something more comfortable and brushed my dyed-red hair. That was all.

Tyson reported that Ming Ming was running around, painting herself with so much make-up that he was afraid that her face might fall off under the weight. That received many laughs and a sharp slap as a result. We only had half an hour before we were meeting again down stairs. Even so, when the thirty minutes had passed the dining hall was only half full.

The table in the centre had been pushed to the side with the others, leaving enough seats for us all and a large gap in the middle. Speakers had been connected up to a music player- thankfully not Rick's- and were blaring out music. Hiro was standing behind the table with it on, in his sunglasses, looking the part. I was pleased to see no microphones or karaoke players lying around, just in case we were to be subjected to Ming Ming's singing. I shudder just thinking about it!

I sat with Ray again. I was beginning to think that he was the only truly sane person left, other than me of course, but you can never be too sure of that! We waited for about ten minutes before Mr Dickenson sighed.

"Will someone go and find them? Max?" Max dragged himself up slowly and traipsed upstairs reluctantly. But that is what you get for sitting by the door. He came back down a couple of minutes later, all alone. It was another five minutes before anyone else showed their face, but then they all came down at once. It was weird to see how the blading teams had split into other groups over the week. It was only here or there that two bladers from the same team sat together. Once again I am discounting the Blitzkrieg Boys: they are just not normal.

"Now we are all finally here… Let us get underway." A murmur of excitement reverberated around the room. "For the first challenge this evening…" Hiro played some atmospheric music. "…you need to get yourselves into even teams, with at least one boy and girl in each."

"Oooooh…." Went the crowd. No one moved for a while, unsure of what to do, but then we all began to stand up and shuffle around the room. I kept close to Ray, and Miguel and Garland were in my sights. It is always best to have Garland in your team; he is good at everything. Miguel was just standing next to him, but you know, he is good at some things too, and he is very friendly. We were so close to them, when an arm snaked its way around my neck and I was yanked sharply backwards across the room.

...

He he he I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I can ensure plenty of hilarity to follow! I will add a little background to my inspiration for this story, and tell you that we did actually play this game when I went skiing. I thought it would be fun to see how our blading friends would react!

Thank you again to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters! Reviews are most welcome!


	14. Who Wears the Trousers Now?

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade

Chapter Fourteen- Who Wears the Trousers Now? 

We were so close to them when an arm snaked around my neck and yanked me backwards sharply.

"What?" I yelped quickly, but there was nothing that I could do. The arm was too strong and I did not even know who it belonged to. An image of a phantom arm with no body swam into my mind, but the looks on people's faces around me were of sympathy not fear.

"Let me go!" I ordered pathetically and I was dumped casually into an empty chair. An unwelcome sight welcomed me to my team for the evening. You might be able to guess who they were. The Blitzkrieg Boys, complete with Kai. Tala had been the one to kidnap me, and was now slumped in the chair next to me. He tried to look like he was innocent, but he failed completely.

I realised instantly that there was no chance of escape and I did not want to try anyway in case Bryan was the one sent to find me. The others looked a little surprised to see me with them all of a sudden; you would think I had teleported into the chair by the look Ian was giving me. Kai was ignoring me, as was Bryan. Out of all of them, Spencer was the only one to look sympathetic and I smiled at him in a defeated way.

"Hi." I said weakly.

"Hello Nate! So nice of you to join us!" Grinned Tala. I saw Spencer roll his eyes at Kai, who smirked. It was incredible to see how they acted as if nothing had happened last night between Tala and Bryan. Everything was as normal as it gets with them. Even Kai's black eye had not developed properly, and was just a slight red scratch under his right eye.

After several seconds of awkwardness Mr Dickenson began to talk. I glanced over my shoulder and met the eye of Ray, who was wincing apologetically at me. I mouthed the word 'help' at him and he shrugged as if to say it was my problem not his, although he was sorry.

"Now you are all in your teams for the evening… no Tyson you cannot change now… I can introduce the first contest." A hush descended once again, and everyone turned to gaze at him intently. No one can ever say that we so not take competition seriously! Mr Dickenson looked a bit taken aback by the sudden attention that we were giving him. It took him a couple of seconds to get his mind back into a functional state. Sometimes I think we do not appreciate him enough.

"Yes the first contest… yes… that was it… right, okay. The first contest is for one boy and girl in each group. Choose now." The suspense was really growing, and we all waited in silence. I was naturally chosen, being a girl and all that, and Tala nominated Kai, who lacked the patience to object.

"Okay? Right. This contest will also involve the rest of the team, and it is their responsibility to dress the two volunteers as members of the opposite sex. This is essentially a cross-dressing competition." If my face was shocked then Kai's was in absolute brain melt-down! His mouth hung open and his eyes bulged out of their sockets. He was vaguely shaking his head as if he was trying to wake up from a nightmare that was all too real. He was physically incapable of reacting or moving more than he was already.

My own heart had skipped a beat, and I sat frozen in my seat. Why did I have to be the only girl on the table? Guaranteed my situation was not as bad as Kai's, for I generally wear jeans and clothes that could pass for a guy's. There was all sorts of hell that Kai could be subjected to!

Laughter reverberated around the room and grew louder as more people joined in. Kai twitched.

"Right, calm down, calm down. You all have fifteen minutes to get ready and come back down to have your efforts judged." The rush to get upstairs was manic, and not everyone was going willingly. Kai began his feeble excuses when we were all inside the Blitzkrieg's room. He had been escorted there by Spencer and Tala.

"I am not…"

"Oh yes you are!"

"But…"

"No arguing!"

"I refuse…"

"Tough!"

"But…"

"You were the one who agreed!"

"No I…"

"Well you didn't object!"

"Well no, but…"

"So it's sorted!"

"No… well… yes, but…"

"So you do agree, that's good of you!"

"I never…"

"You did." I add, and he glares at me. But there is nothing that he can do. Tala made sure that Bryan was placed in front of the only escape route. He was more than happy to comply for a change, and he had an evil grin plastered on his face. Kai had never been so helpless in his life, let alone so speechless. I felt a similar way when Tala pushed a pair of dark jeans and a black vest at me. I recognised them as Kai's and I glanced at him, He was too busy cursing the world and everything in it to notice. I took it as a sign to go ahead and disappeared in the bathroom to get changed. They fitted reasonably well, much to my surprise, and I emerged to a round of applause from Ian and Tala.

We had little over two thirds of the time left and we still had nothing for Kai to wear. As the girl it was my job to find something. None of my own clothes would do, and Tala agreed to come with me to find something a bit more extreme. We ran through a mental list of all the other girls on holiday with us: Emily, Julia, Mariah, Matilda, Hilary and Ming Ming. The last two of which were staying in the same room, and so we went there first. All of the doors were open and we just walked straight in. It turned out that max was the lucky one in their group, and Hilary was there too.

"Hey Hil."

"Hi, looking good Nate." I smiled and winced at the same time. She had sounded genuine.

"Do you mind if we borrow some of your clothes?"

"Sure, who's it for?"

"Kai." She sputtered with laughter and willingly handed over whatever we asked for. There was a good chance her clothes would fit Kai. I could see a floaty pink dress in the wardrobe that was obviously Ming Ming's, and after a furious mental debate, decided that Kai was probably suffering enough. In the end we went back to Kai with a floral skirt and pink strappy top. Tala was enjoying himself so much that he grabbed my hand and forced me to skip down the corridor with him. I looked in the doorways as me passed and each held a similar view of insanity and panic.

When we handed Kai the bundle of clothes I thought he might cry.

"Do I really…"

"Yup!"

"But…"

"Just do it!" He gave up. While we were waiting I fished out a pair of Ian's shoes and tried them on, they fitted, almost. I stood up to walk around a bit and suddenly a hand grabbed my hair. I froze and screamed on the inside, fearing it was Bryan and that he might kill me. But it was not. It was Tala. Again. I should have guessed really, but I was too busy being creeped out. A feeling that got worse when he started playing with my hair as if we were sisters or something. My mind went blank for yet another time, and Tala started humming show tunes. Spencer noticed that I was no longer breathing and came to my rescue.

"Uhrm, Tala, dude, I think you're scaring Nate." The person in question continues humming as if he was oblivious to the world.

"Does your hair go back?" He asked innocently. I barely scraped enough brain cells together in time to reply.

"K-k-k-kind of…"

"Hmm, can I try?" Once again I was thrown.

"Uhrm… no…"

"Okay." He seemed happy enough and let go. I was across the room and cowering near Spencer almost immediately. It felt like an age before I was recovered sufficiently to continue talking.

"Can I see your hair up?" Tala continued.

"Why?"

"It might make you look more masculine."

"Uhr okay then." I thought it best not to argue, you know, in case he decided to start playing with my hair again. I was beginning to wish Bryan was not standing guard at the door. In one swift movement my hair was up in a ponytail. With my hair only resting above my shoulders when down, a large amount of hair never stood a chance of going anywhere near the ponytail at the back. Tala studied my hair as if in deep thought.

"Keep it like that." I nodded. Best not to argue with the crazy person!

At that moment the bathroom door opened and out stepped Kai. The sight that met us was so unreal that it was difficult to comprehend. The clothes fitted perfectly and clashed with his hair in such a way that your eyes could have watered: if they were not already full of water from the effort of holding in the laughter. I began shuddering with the strain, and had to lift a hand up to my mouth and turn around to face the wall before I could calm down sufficiently to breathe again.

The initial shock was burned into my retina and shall be remembered for all eternity. I can safely say that I shall never look at our dear captain in the same way ever again. EVER. But the image was not complete. Tala's evil genius was only just beginning to wake and we had a full five minutes left before we had to be downstairs.

"Are we done yet?"

"Nope!" And Tala reached for the make-up bag that we had borrowed from Hilary. "Sit!" Kai groaned and did as he was told. "Nate, if you would do the honours?" I considered saying no, but this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I nodded in consent and took the bag from him. Kai kept his eyes closed the entire time and I was grateful for that. He did not see Tala pass me the pink eye shadow.

...

There we go! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it! You will have to wait until next time to see the complete picture (evil laugh).

Reviews are very welcome!


	15. What Beybladers do in Their Spare Time

Disclaimer: sadly I do not own Beyblade

Chapter Fifteen- What Beybladers do in their Spare Time

Thank you for all the reviews! I hope you enjoy this chapter! 

The completed look was unbelievable; there are no other words to describe it. We all stood there staring at what we had done. My own make over was nothing in comparison. Kai just stood there, attempting to appear like everything was normal, but this just made it funnier.

He was wearing a floral skirt and a pair of tights, a pink top with frills around the neck and a black jacket of my own to disguise the arm muscles. His eyes were lined black with pink eye shadow, and thick, long lashes to frame them even further. A smudge of blusher on each cheek and rose red lips would have been enough, but Tala had insisted that Kai's usual face paint to be drawn on in pink. A flower necklace dangled from his neck. But what really completed the picture, was a flower clip the size of my fist, borrowed from Matilda, placed in his hair at a jaunty angle. It was a rose.

Kai had fallen ominously silent and still. I began to worry that he was planning a daring escape out of the window, but before I could raise this issue with someone it was time to go downstairs. Luckily for Kai we were the first to go down, and entered an empty room. I sat next to him in an act of moral support. Tala had added a few more accessories to my own outfit, in the form of a thick Russian jacket and a black leather belt.

"It's lucky you are so flat chested Nate." Tala stated suddenly. I went bright red instantly and slowly crossed my arms. Bryan snorted softly and Spencer and Ian looked at me sympathetically. Kai twitched. Tala looked as if nothing had happened, and carried on tapping a steady beat on the table and looking at his watch.

"I mean that would have been difficult to disguise." He continued. The awkward silence thickened and I felt as if I was dying inside from embarrassment. Kai twitched. "And I mean like really difficult to disguise. Like…"

"Tala stop!" Interrupted Spencer.

"But…"

"Just… stop." I really owe Spencer one. He was like the father of the group, in charge of controlling his clinically insane and sometimes violent children. At this moment in time, Kai was playing mother.

People started arriving now. I have never seen anything like it. Everyone was laughing with and at each other. It was really something. Kai began to fidget as if he did not know whether he wanted to sink into his chair with shame, or try to retain some pride and sit straight and endure his torment. All the while his eyes were clamped shut.

Suddenly Mr Dickenson and Hiro appeared and we all stopped talking to see how this competition was going to be judged.

"So is everyone here?" The room appeared to be full enough. "Right then. This round of the contest will be judged by a scoring system. Hiro and I will mark each pair out of ten and the team with the highest score will win. Points will be awarded for originality, style and the general transformation. Okay who wants to go first?" Kai twitched.

The room was full of hands straight away, as everyone desperately wanted to see their pair embarrassed. Tala was practically jumping out of his seat. Luckily for us My Dickenson chose the team closest to where he was standing. Which were not us thank God.

"Okay Emily and Michael! Can we have a round of applause?" Cried Hiro, clearly thinking he was DJ Jazz Man's long lost brother. But nevertheless clap and laugh we did.

Emily was supporting a pair of jeans, about three sizes too big and a loose t-shirt with a baseball cap low over her eyes. She walked with a kind of over-exaggerated strut, and Michael behind her attempted to prance. He also wore a pair of jeans, clearly his own, but the whole look was overshadowed by what I guessed was a pair of socks shoved down the front of a white vest top. When they got to Mr Dickenson and Hiro they turned to face everyone and Emily put up a good show, slouching and pretending to chew some gum. Michael however, cowered slightly under the eyes of the crowd and they lost points because of it.

After a careful debate, they were awarded a six out of ten and allowed to return to their seats. Michael looked visibly relieved. The laughter died away and was replaced by another round of tension. Who was going to be next? Please not us, please not us! Tala for crying out loud stop jumping around like that!

Phew, relax. It was Max and Hilary who were chosen. The two of them do not need a description: they were dressed almost normally. It seemed as if they had spent the entire time arguing, instead of creating a master-piece for us all to enjoy. Max had a splash of make-up on his features and wore a pink t-shirt. That was all. They looked as disappointed as we were, and they only scored two out of ten.

The feelings if disappointment continued when Raul and Julia stepped up next. Their team had suffered from a serious lack of inspiration. We would have given them Tala, but I doubt they would have appreciated it. They had ended up just swapping clothes. Which for twins as similar as those two, was nothing to worry about. They still managed to beat Max and Hilary though, with a score of three.

But them it was the turn of another team. A gasp of awe filled the room when Ming Ming stood up with… Garland.

His long silver hair had been plaited into two school-girl pig-tails on each side of his head. His lips had been stained deep scarlet and there was a single beauty spot drawn on his left cheek with black eyeliner. His eyes were shadowy and stood out starkly against his pale skin. He was wearing one of Ming Ming's dresses; I recognised it as the pink, floaty one that Kai had only narrowly escaped. It was far too small for him, and as a result it came to a halt far above his knees and created a rather traumatic image. Spencer reached over and placed a hand over Ian's eyes.

Mr Dickenson was blushing when the two of them reached him. A couple of people were clutching their stomachs and howling with laughter. I was one of them, I am not afraid to admit. Garland was normally so refined and masculine, that the image we were faced with now was just… just… I give up, just imagine it for yourselves… or not… He certainly looked like he was wishing he was anywhere but here. Anywhere at all. Probably even sitting next to Bryan in an haunted house with no one else around to hear him scream.

They scored a magnificent nine out of ten. I think Garland deserved it really, after all the torment he had been through over the last half an hour, and the future torment of the photos. When he reached his chair he sank into it and went to take his hair out, only to have his hands slapped away by Ming Ming. She was clearly having too much fun to let him go that easily.

The next group was Matilda and Kevin. Kai sighed again as he was granted another few minutes of freedom. Kevin had evidently been bullied into taking part. He was so small that even Matilda's clothes were too big for him. He almost looked sweet, because he looked like an actual girl, green hair and all. He was in a blue skirt (that looked suspiciously like it was being held up by safety pins), and a yellow top that clashed spectacularly with his hair. Matilda was dressed all in in black and it did not suit her at all, in anyway shape or form. They scored seven and Kevin skipped back to his chair like a fairy.

Mariah and Enrique were next. All of Mariah's shocking pink hair was tucked up in a backwards baseball cap. She was surrounded by an awkward aura that increased every time she looked at Enrique. Which was easy to understand really, considering. His blonde, curly hair was pushed off his face by a purple head band, and he was wearing a selection of Mariah's pinkest clothes. The overall effect was blinding. There was a knot in my stomach as I realised that we were next. I hate to think how Kai is feeling, because it was certainly going to be worse than I was. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him twitch.

They scored six out of ten. And then it was our turn.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review! It makes my day! 


	16. A Matter of Respect

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade

Chapter Sixteen- A Matter of Respect 

Thank you for all of the reviews! Here we go... the one we have all been waiting for...

To say that we were reluctant to move would be like saying the sky is blue. Every pair of eyes in the room fixed their intent gaze on us. Well, more specifically, on Kai. I gained a little confidence at that, because it reminded me that I was not dressed as he was. You would have a serious fight on your hands if you threatened me with that. I was surprised Kai was even here at all to be honest with you. The Kai I know should be glaring daggers at everyone in the room, through the window, from a hill several miles away, with a mug of coffee and a pair of binoculars. I am aware that, that image is creepy, but that really is how I see him. Especially in situations such as this. Not that I have ever been in a situation like this before, you understand!

We walked to the front under the eyes of our friends and team mates. No one made a sound. They were too shocked. My Dickenson looked like he was having a heart attack, and Hiro was frozen like a ninja statue. No one moved.

We reached the front and turned around to face everyone. Kai kept his eyes shut as if his life depended upon it. There was a frown on his brow and he was clearly frustrated, if not murderous. Still no one spoke. Why was this not over with already?

"Uhr… well… uhr… I think… I … wow…" Was all Mr Dickenson could manage. I was worried that Kai would just walk off and never come back, if things did not end swiftly. He seemed to react top my thoughts and struck a very Kai-like pose. It was the worst thing he could have done, and seeing him standing there, hand-on-hip with a model-like slouch was more than any of us could handle.

I suddenly found myself in need of a sit-down. The laughter that filled the room was louder than it had been for anyone else that night. My sides were agony and tears flooded down my cheeks for yet another time. Each and every person was suffering from the same Kai- in- a- pink- skirt effect. I thought that Kai would go mental, start attacking people and generally explode in anger. He did go mental. But not in the way I thought.

The laughter was beginning to fade away, when he shifted slightly and struck another pose. This one was not Kai-like. It was in fact more along the lines of something that Ming Ming would use on stage. Both hands were on his hips, he straightened his back and flicked his bangs out of his eyes. He fluttered his eyelashes in a highly feminine way and pouted.

The noise increased, but this time there was applause as well, mixed with some crying.

"Ten!" Hiro rasped between gasps for air. "Ten… out of…ten…!" and the applause filled the room. Kai curtsied and waved delicately with one hand. Then he crossed the room gracefully and did not stop at our table. Instead he reached the door, turned around to give a final wave and flutter of his eyelashes, and then he was gone. No one could speak for several minutes, and when they did it was in complete admiration.

Kai was rumoured to have said later that, "if he was going to lose all respect as captain, then he was going to regain that respect as a cross-dresser."

Meanwhile I was still stuck on the floor, unable to move. Again! Hiro was the one to help me up this time, and eventually I retreated to my seat. The night continued in considerably higher spirits. But that was only one contest down…

….

Kai returned half-an-hour later in his normal clothes and free of any make-up. A cheer went up as he walked in. He accepted it in his usual manner completely ignoring everything. It looked like stoic Kai was back with a vengeance. I saw Tyson hide his camera under his shirt, and suspected he was planning blackmail the next time Kai organised a serious training session. Spencer patted him on the back when he sat down, but by this time the next contest was being announced.

"After that somewhat entertaining round, it is time to start the second competition. Now this one is much more straight-forward. It is… drumroll please…" We all participated in manufacturing a little self-made tension. "A DANCE COMPETITION!"

"OOOH!" Cried Ming Ming, and I rolled my eyes.

"Two people from each team will participate." A commotion started as people volunteering people, who were volunteering other people, who were refusing point blank. There was no such trouble on our table. Tala volunteered himself and Ian. Ian did not – I mean could not – refuse. You cannot say no to Tala when it comes to dancing, it's a fact of life. He leapt up dragged Ian with him, ran into the centre of the make-shift dance-floor and bowed to Mr Dickenson and Hiro. As you do.

Other pairs slowly drifted to the centre as well. There was The Pink Monster and Claude, Tyson and Miguel, Robert and Oliver, Lee and Eddie, Brooklyn and Rick and Mariah and Crusher. There was a fair amount of reluctance among the pairs. But that was kind of to be expected. I was very happy that I was not up there. Clearly Tala thinks Kai and I have suffered enough. FINALLY!

The music started. Lady Gaga blared from the speakers and Tala reacted like a child in a sweet shop, on his birthday! Squealing as high as Ming Ming with a broken nail, he began to move. What I have failed to mention so far, is that Tala is actually a fantastic dancer. He has got the whole confidence thing down, and a natural rhythm. Strange as that sounds, seen as his 'rhythm of life' for want of a better term, is like a random explosion.

The others did not stand a chance. Robert and Oliver were busy attempting to waltz in time to 'Poker Face' and it was not going very well at all to say the least. They would have got points for the hair though – very Gaga.

Brooklyn was wafting. There is no other word for it, except maybe floating or drifting. He was wafting in time to music. Perhaps of all the dancers he was being the most self-expressive, seen as he does appear to live life in the clouds. Apart from when he goes all, bloody- murdering- destroyer- of-worlds. But we try to forget that…

The others were displaying various levels of classic disco dancing. There was not much to say about them. Bu then there was Ming Ming. She was gracing us with her stage performance routine. She thinks it is too awesome, and beyond our understanding, but it is not. Here is a list of stages:

Flutter eyelashes at someone, it does not matter who, so long as they are not Russian.

Swing the hips.

Wiggle.

Strike a pose. Normally alongside a flick of the hair and more eyelash fluttering.

Scream like the world is ending. Have no regard for the hearing and/or sanity of the people sitting around you.

We were sitting in the dining room wincing at whatever The Pink Monster was singing, because it sure as hell wasn't Lady Gaga. The song ended and I thanked my lucky stars. Mr Dickenson announced that the scores were in…

"In third place we have Mariah! In second place we have Brooklyn! And in first place… Tala!"

Ming Ming flounced out in that kind of attention-seeking way that she moves normally. I was not paying any attention to her however. I was too busy having a heart attack: Tala was hugging me.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! The story is nearly complete... Please review! Pretty please with cherries! 


	17. The Journey Home

Disclaimer: I sadly do not own Beyblade

Chapter Seventeen- The Journey Home

Well here we are, at the end of my first fic... I hope you enjoy this final chapter! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed thus far! 

The rest of the evening was filled by general conversation and random dancing. There is nothing else really to say. Even the Blitzkrieg Boys joined in, which was a momentous moment. Obviously not quite as magnificent as the Kai moment from earlier, which was just mind-meltingly hilarious.

I lay there wide-awake, waiting for sleep to fall on me. It is our last night here, and I am actually quite sad about this, although I am dreading the coach journey tomorrow. We are all being taken directly to England for the European tournament. Mr Dickenson is being cheap again and refused to pay for flights. So we have to suffer, for nearly twenty four whole hours! We could have paid for the flights ourselves, I suppose, but then we are also a bit cheap.

I think this thought is what is keeping me awake, but slowly it drifts from my mind and sleep descends.

…

Screaming erupted from the air around me, in the form of Rick's alarm clock. The first thoughts to enter my mind were homicidal and far too violent for this early in the morning. The music was drowned out by a torrent of swearing and a pleasing thwack as Emily punched Rick.

Robert was twitching slightly as he dragged himself in the direction of the bathroom, only to be overtaken by Rick, who had blood pouring from his nose. Emily kicked the alarm clock and it fell silent.

More worryingly still that Emily's outburst, was the look on Brooklyn's face. His eyes were dark and shadowed and crazy. He was cracking his knuckles and growling at the back of his throat. With each passing second he was growing paler and paler, and his eyes growing wider and wider, until I took matters into my own hands. In other words I ran to the window, pulled the curtains open and pointed outside before shouting,

"Look at the little birdie!" He marched over with a slightly more curious face, and I prayed that there was actually a bird out there! If there was not then his wrath may be directed at poor, innocent me! He appeared to relax a little and I sighed in relief, as he reverted back into the tree-hugger that we all know and love. I have spent a week living and skiing with him, and I still have no idea what goes on inside that mind of his. The only thing that I do know, is that I do not want to know.

Breakfast was a silent affair. A few people enquired as to the state of Rick's nose, but they were ignored or told proudly that Emily had finally snapped. Emily herself, was unusually silent, and looked a little shocked at what she had done. I personally would have suggested that we give her a round of applause, but noise is not my friend right now.

We were in normal clothes for a welcome change, and I rejoiced at the freedom of movement that I will never again take for granted.

People began filing back upstairs to finish packing: pockets full with food they had swiped from the breakfast table. Tyson had a whole croissant stuffed in one jacket pocket, and a carton of juice in the other. But that's Tyson for you! After ten minutes that table was surprisingly empty of all food substances, and cutlery. I think that last bit might have been Bryan. Remind me not to sit next to him on the way back. Not that I would have done so willingly anyway.

I cunningly reached over to the centre of the table, and picked up two snack bars and in one smooth movement tucked them into my sleeve. I would have whistled something under my breath and gazed out of the window, but that might make me look suspicious. Sorry I mean more suspicious. After all, smiling randomly at this hour after that alarm clock is suspicious in itself. I realised after successfully stealing more food, that I had been smiling at the Russian table. And that is both suspicious and unnatural!

Hiro is frowning at me, as if attempting to intimidate me into putting the food back. But that is not going to happen! I have to live for twenty four hours on these snack bars, having eaten all of the other food that I brought with me.

My suitcase is not shutting. I have tried everything: sitting on it, screaming at it, jumping on it and swearing at it. Eventually I even try threatening it with Bryan. Suddenly it closes perfectly. I wonder at that…

I was half expecting to find something else that needed to go into the case, but for once there was not. I sighed and looked around the room; it was an end-of-holiday feeling. As excited as I am for the European tournament, a part of me always misses the down-time. Maybe it is the lack of training that it comes hand-in-hand with.

But then it was time to go. There was the usual fiasco of suitcases falling down stairs and into innocent bystanders. This time I did hear the screams. Although as it turned out, they belonged to Ian, who had done something to annoy Bryan, who was now attempting to strangle him. I heard someone mention chilli chocolate, and the rest fell into place without the need of further explanation.

When we got outside to the coach, there was a certain amount of grumbling over seats and occasionally the meaning of life. My heart sank when I saw the coach and climbing on there were only a few spare seats. It was a choice between Bryan, Tala or Kai. I chose Kai. The safest option.

Suddenly there was a noise from outside.

"I am NOT getting on that coach!" shouted Ian. "You can't make me!" But then Spencer picked him up and slung him over his shoulder and carried him on.

"I would close the door if I were you." He said to the driver and dumped Ian in the spare seat next to Bryan, who smiled at him. Ian began to tremble. Kai smirked and I decided that this journey might not be so unbearable after all.

...

Thank you for reading! I hope you have enjoyed this chapter and all of the others! Please review!

I will be back with another fic at some point... most likely after exams... but who knows, I may surprise you!

In the mean time, I will leave you to review. Hint hint hint!


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